In The Company Of Daleks
by Josman
Summary: AU in which Clara was unable to find the Doctor at the end of The Witch's Familiar, and Missy persuaded him to give her up for dead. Now stranded, and trapped in a Dalek casing, Clara's only hope is to blend in long enough to find a way out.
1. Escape From Scaro

**In The Company Of Daleks**

 **Chapter 1: Escape From Scaro**

"Doctor! Missy!" Clara called out again, hating the way her words boomed out as a Dalek voice. She was hurrying through the corridors of the city looking for them but feeling increasingly hopeless. The city was huge, and it was in chaos. The only positive was that the Daleks were too distracted by the goo rising from the sewers to stop her. Whether the goo was ignoring her because she wasn't a Dalek or if it was just blind luck that it hadn't caught her, she didn't know. But she had to get out of there before it changed its mind.

Just then, she heard the sound of the TARDIS engines and hurried towards them. The Doctor was free. He could help. But then, to her horror, she realised they were fading away. She was able to get back to the main chamber just as it vanished. "Doctor!" She screamed at the spot where it had been, but to no avail.

Of course. He'd seen the Daleks apparently kill her, and Missy would be too concerned with her own survival to correct him, least he waste time trying to look for her. No she was stranded, and trapped in a Dalek casing.

The supreme Dalek turned her way, but before it could do anything the floor beneath its podium gave way, sending it tumbling down into the sewers. This brought Clara's mind to the more immediate problem.

Next to her, another Dalek was shouting "ELEVATE!" Again and again, unaware that whatever the Doctor had done to it had fried its flying circuits.

Fortunately, Clara had no such problem "Elevate!" She shouted and shot upwards so fast she banged against the ceiling. The moment she hit it, she felt an agonising pain, not in her body but coming from the dome. It seemed the Dalek casings were wired up to transmit pain into the Dalek's head. She needed to get out of this suit soon.

As the walls began to collapse, a hole opened up in the ceiling and Clara willed herself towards it. As more and more of the building started to collapse, she realised she could see daylight through a hole ahead. Again, she willed herself towards it, and found herself hurtling that way in an almost straight line, bouncing off the walls, and spinning around as she went. Though the collisions weren't damaging her or the casing, she felt each bump as though she was flying along with no protection at all.

Finally, she was outside. Except now, she was flying around with no control, spinning and tumbling through the air as she desperately tried to stabilise.

"I need to stop panicking. Stop panicking! Stop!" The machine took her last word literately and she came to a dead stop, hovering 50 metres above the ground. She watched as the city crumbled below her.

Clara took several deep breaths. She had to keep calm and objective if she was to have any chance of getting out of this. She had no way to reach the TARDIS as her phone was still sitting in her bag back at that cafe where she'd met Missy. She'd have to find some other way of getting his attention. But there was little way of doing that in her current state. She made a list in her mind. Get to the ground. Get out of the casing. Find help. Contact the Doctor.

The first task was relatively straightforward. She guessed what the commands would be (Up, Down, turn etc.) and tested them with a bit of trial and error. Just as it had on the ground practice rapidly made it easier to control the speed and direction. With a bit more practice she'd be able to fly it anywhere she wanted.

Not that she planned to stay in it. She'd worked out that she could command it to hover at various altitudes, so she ordered it to take her to a centimetre above the ground, before ordering it down. She still landed more sharply than she'd hoped.

Now the next problem. Getting out of the suit. Logically, there had to be a way to open it, as the Daleks could do it. Now that she'd stopped herself from panicking, it all seemed so clear. She just thought the word _"Open."_ To her immense joy, she felt the casing come open. She was free!

She still couldn't see through her eyes though. Everything was being fed to her via the eye stalk, but she'd soon fix that. She reached up to pull the neural links from her head, only for her hands to stop when they'd barely passed her chest, as though they were tethered to the seat. She felt up and down her arms but could find no trace of restraints. She tried again but still couldn't lift them high enough.

She tried moving her head down, which caused the eyestalk to droop, but she couldn't move further before it reached its maximum angle. Now Clara realised why she couldn't move her arms. Every time she did, it was raising the gun and the sucker. Once they reached her chest, they were at maximum height. If they couldn't get any higher, neither could her arms.

She sat there for a while longer, twisting herself this way and that, trying to get the probes out, but to no avail. Just then, she received a message from the on board systems. There were no words, it just somehow conveyed to her that it couldn't sustain itself with the front open any longer and would need to close.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Clara shouted as she felt it closing around her once more. She took a deep breath. "Open." No result. "Open!"

The systems conveyed to her that it was unable to open for another 10790 rels. But Clara had returned to full panic mode. "OPEN! OPEN! OPEN!" Now it said it had to wait 10783 rels. Clara spent 10583 of them screaming, cursing and calling for help to the petrified woods around her.

Finally, the time ran down and she was able to open the casing again. But she still couldn't remove the probes. According to the chronometer in the machine, it was only about 15 minutes before it automatically closed up once more. It made sense. The Daleks were dependant on the life support system. Opening it for too long would cut them off and once it was closed, they'd need time to recover.

With the hope that had built up when the casing opened suddenly dashed, Clara just broke down and wept. "Let me out. Let me out." She sobbed.

* * *

Clara spent the next two days roaming about on the planet's surface, whilst trying anything she could think of to get the probes out. She tried poking them with a stick. It took her ages to manoeuvre herself close enough to a bush to grab one, due to the bulk of the machine and her inability to lean forward. When she did, she found they were all petrified and too brittle. Twice, she tried ramming herself into a bush in the hope it would snag on a branch. But the devices were just too deeply embedded. She'd have to pull from the side, something she lacked the dexterity to do.

She rammed herself into a bush a third time, just because it felt nice to feel something on her own skin, even as it scratched her. Everything that touched her casing felt cold. The only exception being when it registered pain.

She tried several times to assemble a grabber device, but each time she was limited by her inability to see through her eyes and the 15 minute time limit. Once the casing closed, the antibodies in the suit would destroy anything she'd brought in with her. Fortunately, they registered her and her clothes as the occupant.

She found that she never hungered or tired. More tubes had attached themselves to her, feeding her nutrients. At first this had made her feel ill, but the machine seemed to have registered this and adjusted its feed to suit her needs. That at least was a positive. But the lack of eating and sleep was upsetting.

At first, she'd roamed around in search of help, but she saw more and more signs that this planet was lifeless. Just the way the Daleks would want it. There were no insects, no noises, all the plants were petrified. Whatever life there had been was long extinct, or else had left the planet.

As she went, she learned more and more about the machine she was trapped in, which might have been fascinating in other circumstances. It was self repairing and could power itself from a whole host of sources, such as radiation, sunlight, and static electricity. She discovered that the bumps weren't just there to look good, but could sense all sorts of things, such as changes in the environment, power sources and radiation levels. These were fed straight into her head as though she could feel them herself.

Her radiation senses allowed her to feel some big spikes on the planet, which drove another nail into the coffin. Even if she could get out of the suit, she'd get caught in a nuclear wind within a day and petrified like everything else.

She watched the skies through her stalk, waiting for someone to come and investigate, whilst listening out for the sound of those TARDIS engines. But none came. If the Doctor believed she'd died here, he'd not want to return. Finding it too painful.

But she continued to explore. Trying not to think about the real possibility that she'd never escape and the suit would continue to sustain her until she died of old age.

* * *

Finally, after two days, she heard the sound of engines overhead. Not the TARDIS, but a ship was a ship.

But when it cleared the clouds, her heart sank. It was a Dalek ship. Someone in the city must have given off a distress signal before they died. Clara looked round hurriedly for a hiding place but had no idea how to go about doing that. How do you hide a whacking great Dalek in a barren landscape?

She looked up once more and saw that the Dalek ship already seemed to have spotted her. Through her sense globes, she could pick up proximity senses of other Daleks. No doubt, they'd have found her. All she could do was try and look inconspicuous.

The ship landed in front of her. She placed herself in an attentive position before the door.

The ramp lowered and a Dalek slid down it. "REPORT."

Clara though quickly. What would a Dalek say? "Scaro City destroyed. Experiment… Failure." She assumed that was the reason for the glowing Daleks and the Dalek goo gaining the strength to rise.

"WHAT ABOUT DAVAROS?"

"I don't... Unknown." She said. "I was the only survivor."

The Dalek looked her over and said. "WE SHAL REPORT TO THE SUPREME OF THE FLEET. FOLLOW."

Clara looked round over the landscape. If she got on that ship, she'd be trapped until the Daleks next landed somewhere. All hope of escaping her suit gone. If she stayed here, maybe rescue would come, maybe she could find a way to get these probes out, and maybe the moon really was made of cheese. She had to face fact that staying here held no hope for her. And that was if the Daleks didn't blow her up on the spot.

"I SAID FOLLOW." Said the Dalek.

"I… obey." Said Clara, and followed it up the ramp. As the hatch shut behind her and the engines powered up once more, she wondered just how long she would have to keep up this pretence?


	2. Living With The Enemy

**Chapter 2: Living With The Enemy**

The Daleks on the ship had returned to their posts. None of them questioned Clara. The possibility of another life form being inside one of their suits had never seemed to cross their minds.

She was left in the middle of the bridge, sat there. So they were taking her to report to the Dalek Supreme. She needed to risk finding more details. "Where is the Supreme… located?" She said. Direct, formal words, she remembered. No apostrophes or expletives.

"IN THE FLAGSHIP." Said one of the Daleks.

"And where is the flagship?"

"IN ORBIT. IT IS COMING ON SCREEN NOW."

On the screen, she saw the view of a Dalek ship at least ten times the diameter of the scout ship which had picked her up. "MANOUVER TOWARDS DOCKING PORT 5." The Daleks manoeuvred their ship towards a docking port on the top of the hull, touched down and clamped on.

"FOLLOW." One of the Daleks said to her.

She followed it into a lift, down into the ship, and then through endless lengths of bare metal corridors. Clara's heart was beating fast. Every inch deeper into the ship would make it harder to escape should the Daleks not believe her story.

Finally, they found their way to the bridge. On a console in the centre of the room, stood the Dalek supreme. Decked out in its red armour. Identical to the one she'd seen down on Scaro.

"WHAT IS THE STATUS OF DAVAROS'S DALEK-TIMELORD HYBRID EXPERIMENTS?" Said the Supreme.

That was helpful. Now she knew a bit more about what had been going on down there.

"CITY FOUND DESTROYED ON ARRIVAL." Said the Dalek that had brought her. "WE FOUND ONLY ONE SURVIVOR."

"REPORT." The Supreme said to her.

"Well…" Clara told them the story, as best she could, starting from the moment Colony Sarb had captured the Doctor in the middle ages. She made sure to tell it all from the Dalek's point of view. Any key moments she hadn't been present for, she made intelligent guesses at. It wasn't as though they could check. She also ended her part in it at the moment the Daleks had tried to disintegrate her. She told them they'd succeeded. She made sure to let them know Missy had survived though. Maybe the Daleks would hunt her down and do a string of nasty things to her.

"WHAT OF THE DOCTOR?" Said the Supreme.

"His TARDIS was destroyed." Said Clara. "He is presumed dead in the city."

"THE EXPERIMENT WAS A FALIURE. BUT IS HAD RID US OF THE DOCTOR." Said the Supreme. "SCARO 14 WILL BE ABANDONED. THE FLEET WILL RETURN TO THE OUTPOST ON THE BORDER WITH THE GALACTIC FEDERATION." It turned to the Dalek that had brought her. "YOU WILL RETURN TO THE SCOUT SHIP." It then turned to Clara. "YOU WILL REMAIN HERE."

"I OBEY." Said the other Dalek. Clara quickly repeated it.

The Supreme took a look at the console before it, then turned to her once more. "ENGINE 4 HAS DEVELOPED A FAULT. LOCATE AND CORRECT."

Clara was briefly stumped. How was she supposed to do that? She'd never seen a Dalek engine, nor did she have any idea where to find it. Or even how to turn a screw with this sucker arm.

Before she could think of a way a Dalek might express these problems, however, she felt a sudden pressure in her head, emanating from the probes. For a horrible moment, she thought they were burrowing in deeper, but then the pressure went and she realised what had actually happened. The Daleks had uploaded all the information she'd need to fix the engine straight into her head, along with a route she was to take to get there.

Realising they were waiting for a response from her, she said, "I obey."

Down in the engine room, she found a group of beings from various lifeforms stood to attention. These, the data cluster had informed her, were robomen. Creatures the Daleks had captured from various worlds and suppressed their minds so deeply that they would follow every command given as though operating under remote control. Even if they broke free, the shock would kill them. With the Daleks' lack of opposable thumbs, these were the being who did most of the fiddly jobs around the ship.

This was also what they would turn her into if they ever found her outside her suit. And they would find her. On her journey down, she'd had a chance to look around and seen security cameras on every square inch of the place. If there were blind spots, they would take a lot longer to find.

For now, she had to keep playing the part. That meant getting this engine fixed. She began issuing orders to the robomen. "You two. Remove the cover. You three, place the micromeson scanner on that mark there…" Once they'd all been assigned tasks, she noticed one was left standing there. She didn't need him for anything, so she asked him a few questions. "Do you remember your name?"

"I… do not." Said the roboman.

She thought for a moment. "This is not an order, but, hypothetically, if I were to ask you to disconnect me from this casing, would you?"

"I would not understand how." He said. The Daleks had wiped any knowledge of their internal workings from their heads, least one of them go mad and use it against them.

"Excellent. You've passed the test." Said Clara, now knowing that was another potential solution she'd need to discount.

After a lot of tinkering, they found the fault. One of the extreno particle feeds had become misaligned. Back on Earth, it would have taken a whole lifetime for her to work out what extreno particles were. Here, she understood it perfectly. With the fault found, she directed the robomen to realign it and reassemble the machinery. She thought about saying something like "Well done team." But decided against it. The robomen wouldn't understand and the Daleks might overhear. Instead, she went to a console, as her route map had instructed her to do upon completion, placed her sucker arm on a control bump and interfaced with the communication system to bring up a video feed of the bridge.

"Engine fault identified." She said, and described it to them briefly.

"GOOD." Came the reply.

Clara now felt a sucking sensation from the probes and found that all the information she'd been supplied with had gone, minus a few residual memories. She doubted she'd be able to even spell extreno particles now.

Seconds later, the Dalek supreme issued her with new orders. "THE ROBOMEN NEED FEEDING."

She felt another pushing sensation as they supplied the information about how to do it. This time she felt something she hadn't been aware of in the shock of the last jolt. In the brief time that it took to upload, she was briefly connected to the Daleks' hive mind. And she could hear all of them screaming. It ended the moment the upload was complete but it was a jolt to the senses.

Fortunately, Clara's previous experiences with mind-altering aliens had led her to take steps to combat unwanted intrusions. " _I'm Clara Oswald."_ She thought. " _My first pet was called Pixie. I like baking."_ This had the desired effect and the screaming sound was gone.

"I obey." She said, and went towards the hall, where the robomen would be served tasteless nutri blocks. Once more, she knew how to do that task, and only that task. She supposed every Dalek must, at any given time, understand only what it needs to to fulfil its orders. Once they're done, it was all extracted and replaced with new orders.

Worried that it might extract other things from her, she recited every poem she had time to in her head. That was a relief. The data cluster had only taken what it had put in.

The fear of the Daleks exterminating her on arrival was gone. But now she faced a potentially worse prospect. Becoming lost in the Daleks' war machine, doomed to carry out their tasks forever.

* * *

Few lifeforms had ever experienced what Clara soon found herself caught up in. Namely, what the Daleks did when they weren't invading worlds.

The simple answer was that they ensured they were always at the ready to invade worlds. A good chunk of the tasks she was assigned were simply checking machinery, looking for faults. Even if it had been checked only 1000 rels ago, they wanted to make sure.

The ship was huge, but contained a lot of empty space. She found there were only 32 Daleks on the ship, herself not included. This was all that was really needed since almost all the systems were automated, or handled by robomen. The Daleks were only there to issue orders and occasionally do the heavy lifting. Often literally. Clara found she could lift 6 tonnes with her sucker arm. And 32 Daleks were more than capable of handling these tasks since they never had to stop to rest or eat or sleep. They were each working round the clock.

Alongside inspections, maintenance and upgrades, she would also be assigned to work on research projects. Sometimes, these involved upgrading their engines, armour or life support. But mostly, they were searching for better weapons and tactics. Better ways to kill things. Strangely, being assigned here was a relief to her as it meant she could just pretend to work for a while and report failure. For a few hours, she wasn't helping the Daleks.

On other times, she'd be assigned to the war room. With the fleet kept in reserve, the only purpose this served was to monitor events. The Daleks had the capability to observe the movements of every ship in their empire, as well as a few hundred light years into their neighbours.

She only understood the full extent of the strategic situation when she was working there. But she made a special effort to retain the gist of it in her own memory, in the hope that it might reveal a way out at some point. The Daleks were at war with everyone around them. That was the way it had always been. But even they knew that they couldn't take on the whole universe at once. Instead, they would only launch a full invasion at one at a time. At the moment, they were at war with a race called the Morvellans.

The border with the Galactic Federation, which this fleet was patrolling, was relatively inactive. The Daleks were on the defensive to conserve resources. The two sides would raid each other, but the only time they'd launch a full attack was if the federation were preparing an attack on them, or if the Daleks needed something.

Clara hated doing work for the Daleks. But at least it kept her occupied. The guide she'd read into psychological torture had said that it was important to keep the mind busy. As well as focusing on the tasks, she recited every song she knew in her head. She created ranking systems for every planet she'd ever been on and she made plans for what she was going to do when she got out of there. And how badly she was going to kill Missy. She also ran her hands over any part of her body she could reach, just to reassure herself she wasn't a Dalek dreaming of being human.

It would have helped if these was some form of entertainment she could distract herself with, but that was asking a bit much of the Daleks. Even the basic idea of conversation was lost on them Not that she'd tried, but she'd never seen any of them conversing either.

The closest thing they had was a designated viewing room, where they would gather occasionally to watch footage of Daleks being destroyed right across the universe. For them, it was educational. A means to determine what that Dalek had done wrong so they could avoid the same mistake. For Clara though, it was very satisfying to watch Daleks being destroyed. It reminded her they weren't infallible.

She'd found out a few useful things with her time here. For instance, she'd strayed off her assigned schedule a few times and found that they weren't keeping too close a tab on whether she followed orders to the letter, as long as the job was done. The idea that a Dalek could ignore orders was too unbelievable to them.

Another useful fact was that they paid no attention to which Dalek was which, minus the Dalek Supreme. This caused them to discount any slip up she made as an isolated incident. No matter how many times she made them. It also meant that any Dalek could issue orders to another Dalek. Twice, she'd successfully ordered Daleks to assist her and they'd obeyed without question. Though she knew they'd never obey her if she ordered them to do something against their nature.

None of this would do her any good without an avenue of escape, and an ally who could remove these probes from her head.

* * *

She wasn't sure how long she'd been there. Besides a few specialised units for multidimensional time, the only unit of time available to her was the rel. This was all they needed, since minutes and hours are all subjective and keeping everyting to a single unit simplified calculations. The problem was, the chronometer measured the number that had passed since the Daleks' creation and it was a long number. The absence of sleep or a day/night cycle only made it worse.

Nonetheless, she'd kept track of time by remembering roughly what the last few digits had been at various points and calculating in her head, assuming rels and seconds were roughly the same thing. She therefore believed it had been roughly two weeks.

Today, she'd been assigned to upgrade a device known as a planetary engine. When the Daleks forced a surrender from a world, they would often use forced labour to dig a mine most of the way through the planet's crust. If, in the intervening time, the locals had shown total submission, they would be allowed to live as slaves. If there was too much resistance, the Daleks would knock out the planet's core and replace it with an engine. Thus wiping out life on the planet and allowing the Daleks to move the planet to their salvage yards, where every natural resource would be stripped, without the need to cart them across their empire.

Living with the enemy was supposed to make you realise that they were not as terrible as you'd imagined. The Daleks were the exception which proved the rule. Every rel she spent around them made her more sick at the sight of them.

She wondered once more if she could make a "mistake." But she knew she couldn't. They checked everything so regularly that they'd find it and trace the problem back to her. It was one thing to take an incorrect turning. Deliberate sabotage would not go unnoticed. They'd kill her, and fix the mistake anyway.

Little did Clara know that an opportunity was about to present itself. "ALL DALEKS TO THE WAR ROOM." Came over the tannoy, along with a map of how to get there injected into her head. It was never enough for them just to give her a map of the ship. She had to follow specific routes every time, to avoid colliding with another Dalek. It also meant she had to perform her mental exercises every time they sent her somewhere

In the war room, the Daleks were gathering in ranks. Clara manoeuvred herself into her assigned spot.

"A SPARKIAN PASSENGER LINER HAS STRAYED CLOSE TO OUR BORDERS." The Supreme said. "THE FEDERATION FLEET IS TOO FAR AWAY TO ASSIST IT. WE ARE THE CLOSEST DALEK SHIP. WE WILL INTERCEPT AND EXTERMINATE!"

"EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!" The Daleks chanted., with Clara quickly joining in, tough feeling horrified. They were about to attack a passenger liner without a rel's thought.

But still, someone on that ship could be persuaded to help her. She could help them in return. It was a vague hope in both cases. But a hope nonetheless.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: A big thanks to everyone who's reviewed and followed so far. I have most of this story planned out and will be posting more before too much longer, though as usual suggestions are welcome.**


	3. The Daleks At War

**Chapter 3: The Daleks At War**

Of all the information the Daleks had forced into her head, their standard battle tactics were the least welcome. She'd never expected them to be chivalrous, but hadn't contemplated the full extent of it. Anything and everything was fair game to them, if it would gain them an advantage. She couldn't imagine any other species having to inform each other of when not to just bomb whole continents, as though that was naturally the first thing they'd do.

The good news though, was that it gave her an opportunity to do some good for the first time since she'd climbed into this Dalek casing. She now knew that the Daleks would rather capture the ship intact so they could plunder it for resources. But their main priority was killing the occupants. If blasting it out of the stars was significantly simpler, they'd do it. She had to persuade them that it wouldn't be much easier.

Clara had been placed on the scanning module. The Sparkians had quickly realised that they had no hope of outrunning or out manoeuvring the Daleks, so they were trying to build up their shields. Clara dithered as much as possible, scanning trivial points, until they'd reach a sufficient strength for the Daleks to determine that it would take too long to breach. Finally, it reached that point and she reported it to the Supreme.

"BUT WILL IT STOP US FROM BOARDING?" It said.

"No." She replied. If she told them anything else, they'd blast it out of the stars anyway.

"PREPARE A 20 DALEK BOARDING PARTY." Said the Supreme. "MANOUVER THE SHIP TOWARDS ITS MAIN DOCKING PORT. 20 DALEKS FROM THIS SHIP WILL ASSIST THE BOARDING PARTY."

Another jolt of information told Clara that she was to join the boarders.

* * *

The Sparkians had done everything they could to escape, but it was no good. The Dalek warship was simply much faster, more manoeuvrable and better equipped than them.

"TRACTOR BEAM ENGAGED."

That was Clara's signal to move to the hanger at the front of the ship. Around her, 19 Daleks were moving in the same direction from all over the ship. She focused hard to avoid hitting them. When the Daleks did a task together, the hive mind would assign each one a route and a time to move everywhere. And they'd follow it to the letter. They never hit each other and always moved as one. It allowed them to get where they all needed to be much faster. Clara, however, had to focus to maintain the same level of discipline. One bump would alert them that something was wrong. But she was just about managing it. Only a little wobbly in places.

She reached a hanger, from which Daleks were launched for ship to ship combat. The room sloped steeply downwards to a set of huge sliding doors. Before them stood the 20 Dalek boarding party, with a Dalek in black armour at their head. Clara and the others would form two more ranks behind them. Where all these new Daleks had come from, she wasn't yet sure.

Clara manoeuvred into the spot she was supposed to in the fourth rank, slightly out of line, but she corrected that before anyone noticed.

Now that she had less to focus on, she felt herself going pale at the thought about what was about to happen. She was about to go into battle. This wasn't like skirting around battles with the Doctor. She'd be right in the firing line!

She took her mind off once more by focusing on waiting for the signal.

To one side, another Dalek was operating a system on the wall. A whirr could be heard as a tunnel extended from the ship, creating a sealed air corridor between them. It wouldn't be long now.

"OPEN THE DOORS." Said the Leader.

"I OBEY."

The doors slid open, beyond the short length of tunnel stood the main hatch of the Sparkian ship.

"FIX TARGETS."

They each took aim at a given point in the door. The slope of the hanger was designed specially to allow give every Dalek a clear field of fire. Now was the time.

"FIRE."

They all fired. Knowing that the guns were powered by the Daleks' rage and hatred, she conjured up an image of Missy lounging on a beach and laughing at her to maximise her impact. Together, they hit the hatch in a series of structural points and it collapsed in seconds.

Through the smoke came a hail of bullet and lazer fire. The Daleks fired back, though neither side could see, and the air soon lit up like a fireworks display.

"ADVANCE!" Shouted the Leader. Clara forced herself to move forward in time with the others.

In the entrance hall of the ship, her heads up display identified 54 Sparkians, who'd formed a defensive position. Now, along with the sounds of shooting, there were also the screams and cries of the Sparkians, along with the endless shouts of "EXTERMINATE!" The noise was deafening.

Worried that someone would notice if she didn't fire her gun, Clara Shouted "Extermiante!" A few times and fired over the Sparkian's heads and into their barricades, creating a shower of sparks and forcing them to duck.

These weren't military people, just security guards, and a few other volunteers, who'd grabbed any weapon they could. And none of them had much impact. Of course, they hurt, but the feelings of pain only increased the Daleks' rage and hatred, giving them more to channel into their fire power.

Within minutes, it was all over. All the Sparkian's efforts had brought down a total of one Dalek.

11 of them had thrown down their weapons and surrendered. One of them had stepped forward and was trying to plead with the Daleks that they spare the other passengers, but all her pleas fell on deaf ears.

Another Dalek had interfaced with the computer. "I HAVE LOCATED A MAP AND A MANIFEST. THERE ARE 173 OTHER PEOPLE ON BOARD."

The Leader turned to the Daleks on one side of the hall. "YOU WILL FORM A BLOCAKADE ACROSS THE SHIP. SWEEP IT IN FULL. ALL LIFEFORMS ARE TO BE EXTERMINATED ON SIGHT." It then turned to the side Clara was on. "YOU WILL SEEK THEM OUT. SEEK. LOCATE. DESTROY."

"But what are you going to do with us?" Said the guard.

"WE REQUIRE 10 MORE ROBOMEN. YOU WILL FILL THEIR ROLES."

The woman had gone a lighter shade of yellow. "But… we… there's 11 of us."

"CORECT." Said the Leader and exterminated her.

Clara didn't see anything more. She'd already gone to search the ship. As the Daleks fanned out, she realised this was her chance. Her luck was holding so far, now all she needed to do was to find some Sparkians before the Daleks did.

Fortunately, she had an advantage over them, as she had a much stronger ability to imagine and think independently. She thought up the map the Daleks had injected into her head. She identified where most of the cabins were located and made her way there.

Her Suit was much more sensitive to distant noises than her human ears, and she could hear the occasional screams of groups of Sparkians, as the Daleks found them. "We surrender! We surrender!" One of them was screaming. "For the love of the goddess, we surrender! ARRRRH!"

Clara focused on the task. She'd found a row of rooms. Now, if she was on a ship about to be boarded by Daleks, where would she go? She'd naturally get as far from the main entrance as possible so she followed the corridor away from it. A fleeing mob would likely head in a straight line so she went along. Eventually, she found a point where she hoped people would taper off and find somewhere to hide. There was a storage bay to her left.

Inside was a maze of storage crates and shelving. Just the place to try and evade a Dalek. The only problem was, how to find them. She elevated herself above the piles and scanned the passageways below her for anything they might have dropped.

Her proximity senses had gotten weaker as the Daleks fanned out. Now they were getting stronger. The Daleks lacked imagination but they were efficient. The block was moving forward rapidly, and the Daleks searching in the rest of the ship were bunching up. They made it all the harder for Sparkians to think of a way through the blockade. And they were drawing ever closer to this bay.

Finally, she found something. A welding torch and fuel tank had seemingly been left abandoned in a hurry. She landed by it and had a look around. Next to it was a sealed storage crate, with a huge gouge down the side, welded together in a bit of a hurry. Had someone been trying to hide their friends inside?

Knowing that the Daleks would hear her blasting it open, she instead placed her sucker arm on the metal and pulled. The new weld gave way and the casing came open once more.

It was at this point that her luck ran out. "NO! You can't have them!" Someone screamed, before she felt a fierce heat in the back of her armour. Someone was trying to use the welding torch on her.

Clara screamed in pain and instinctively fled forwards into the crate. Inside, her heads up display picked up 45 Sparkians. Men, women and children. They all looked at her with expressions of utter terror.

"Quick!" Someone screamed. "Get it before it calls in more!"

They each grabbed the hardest object they could throw and flung them at her. Those with weapons fired them, others just kept throwing.

"Wait!" She shouted. "Do not kill me! I am not a Dalek!"

"Don't listen to it!" The man with the welding torch shouted, as he tried to pull the tank through the entrance. The throwing continued.

Clara had rehearsed this several times, the voice system wouldn't allow her to say her name, or several other things, but she'd found other ways to explain the situation. "Human female, trapped in Dalek casing! I am an enemy of the Daleks! I need to escape so I can assist you!" But no one seemed to be listening.

"It's gun's not working!" A woman shouted and hurried at her with an iron bar.

"I'll prove it!" Said Clara "Open."

But the moment the casing started to move, someone saw and shouted. "It's opening! Aim for the mutant!"

"Close." Clara said. The armour had only moved slightly, not enough to reveal herself, and quickly slid back, but not before the woman stabbed the bar into the gap. The closing armour caught it and snapped just before it could hit her neck. Meanwhile, a stream of projectiles flew past the woman and hit Clara's front section. It would have killed her before anyone had a chance to register what she was. "Listen to me!" She shouted.

But it was already too late. She could feel several Daleks converging upon this position. No doubt they'd heard the noise. Even if she could get the Sparkians on her side, she couldn't stop the Daleks killing them. Though she hated to do so. Clara made a choice.

The woman with the bar had twisted it free and was now using it to bludgeon Clara's armour. "No." Said the man with the torch. "Aim for the eye stalk."

Clara brought her eyestalk and centre turret round. The man had almost got his torch within reach of her. Remembering that her gun had non lethal settings, Clara thought the word _Stun_ as hard as she could. The man lit up brilliantly in negative light, before collapsing, seemingly dead.

This had the desired effect as the other Sparkians leapt away. Clara brought her gun round again and fired 44 more shots at the floor and ceiling, causing them to cower away further as she backed out. "Keep quiet." She said.

She followed her sense globes to the nearest Dalek and reported. "45 Sparkinans located in this room. All have been exterminated."

"WE WILL MOVE THE BLOCKADE FORWARD AND SEARCH FUTHUR. MOVE." Said the Dalek.

"I obey." Said Clara, moving back towards the corridors.

She hadn't had another opportunity after that. The group she'd found were some of the last survivors. It wasn't long before the Daleks had rounded up and exterminated the rest. And she couldn't go back to the group she'd found without leading the Daleks to them.

Within minutes, the Leader Dalek had announced that all Sparkians were accounted for. They'd believed her when she'd said they were dead.

* * *

Within 20000 rels, the Daleks had repaired the ship's hatch and sent the boarding party to take control of the ship, along with a skeleton crew of robomen. They were to fly it to the salvage yards to be stripped.

From her position on the bridge, Clara operated a system to disengage the ships, pleased they still hadn't found those Sparkians. She wasn't sure how they'd be able to escape, but at least now they had a chance. That was more than could be said for her, she'd come so close!

"INSPECT THE HANGER FOR DAMAGE." A Dalek ordered her.

"I obey." Said Clara.

As she went, she tried to think about what had gone wrong. When she'd rehearsed the conversation, she'd imagined the lifeforms she met being calm and rational. That now seemed absurd. They were face to face with a Dalek, for crying out loud! She'd have to think of another way to initiate dialogue next time she met one. But how long would that be?


	4. Production Lines

**Chapter 4: Production Lines**

As it turned out, a new opportunity would present itself to her surprisingly soon. She'd only had to do three more tasks for the Daleks before they Daleks were all summoned to the war room once more.

"A MESAGE HAS BEEN RECIEVED FROM THE DALEK EMPEROR." The Supreme informed them. "RAW MATERIALS ARE REQUIRED FOR THE MORVELLAN FRONT. WE HAVE BEEN ORDERED TO LOCATE A FEDERATION PLANNET WITH SUFFICIENT QUANTITIES OF ELEMENTS DJI54, DBH46…" It listed a few more elements. The data cluster filled Clara in on what they were. Some of them, Clara could guess what the Earth-based equivalents would be. Other's she had had no idea. "LOCATE MINERALOGICAL REPOTS ON ANY PLANNET WITHIN REACHABLE DISTANCE."

They all took positions at consoles and searched. Every time a Dalek found a possible planet, they'd announce it and place it up on a big screen. A second group of Daleks would then rank them, based on other factors.

Clara trawled the databases hard. She found as many uninhabited planets as she could that would supply the Daleks with the materials they needed, while ignoring the inhabited ones she found. While she wanted to escape more than anything, she wasn't about to put lives at risk for her own ends. But it was getting nowhere. Most of these planets, the Daleks would discount for one reason or another. A few came close to reaching the top of their board, but were soon superseded. Mining operations would go much faster with a populace to enslave.

A human colony called Weatley had caught their attention. "THIS PLANNET IS APROXAMATELY 270000 RELS TRAVEL FROM HERE. THE REPORTS INDICATE THAT THEY HAVE RECENTLY WITHDRAWN FROM THE GALACTIC FEDERATION."

"THEN THE FEDERATION WILL OFFER THEM NO ASSISTANCE. THEY WILL BE EASY TO CONTROL."

Weatley soon went to the top of their list and remained there until they'd completed the exercise.

"ASSEMBLE THE FLEET." The Supreme ordered.

* * *

The fleet gathered at a given rendezvous point and the Daleks were soon on course for the planet.

While general maintenance continued as normal, the main focus of every Dalek on the ship now was preparing for the invasion. About half her time was spent sitting in on their war room meetings, trying to look busy while they looked up everything they could get hold of about the planet's military, geography, political situation, and anything else that might need to be factored in. They constantly adjusted their battle plans and relayed the information to the other ships. They were working at an incredible rate, especially considering they'd only decided to invade two days ago.

But one thing was confusing Clara. The other ships, from what she'd seen of them seemed as sparsely populated as this one. There couldn't be more than 6000 Daleks in this fleet. How were they planning to overpower a whole planet? A planet who's population, she'd learned, was around 11 billion.

She found out once they'd reached a point ten hours from Weatley. Here, the Supreme summoned them all to the bridge. "THIS ATTACK WILL REQUIRE A FULL INVASION FORCE. WHAT DO WE HAVE AVAILABLE?"

A Dalek took a look at a console. "WITH OUR CURRENT RESOURCES AND TIME, WE CAN ASSEMBLE 34647 REINFORCEMENTS."

"30000 WILL BE SUFFICIENT." Said the Supreme. "ACTIVATE THE PRODUCTION LINES. ORDER THE OTHER SHIPS TO DO THE SAME."

25 of them left the bridge and went in the direction they'd been sent, Clara included.

There were several areas of this ship that Clara had never been ordered to for various reasons. This was one of them. And she vaguely hoped she'd misinterpreted what the information cluster had told her about what it was. But, of course, it was just as bad as she'd thought. It was a Dalek mass production line.

She took her position at a console near the end of the line. All of them were conducting final checks. All was in order at her point. She scoured the system for a way of making it not in order. Maybe even modify it to produce nicer Daleks. But everything she read that wasn't related to the operation of this machine was just gibberish. The Daleks didn't need her to design Daleks, just assemble them. Besides which, the area she was activating was just a conveyor belt for moving the completed casings along. Not a lot of difference to be made there.

The whole line was in perfect working order. Now the voices came over the communication systems reporting.

"DALEK GENERATION CHAMBER ACTIVATED."

"ACTIVATING LIFE SUPPORT ASSEMBLY."

The sequence was rapidly moving towards her. If she outright refused, how long would it actually delay them? Minutes? Hours perhaps? She'd be dust as well. She had no choice but to obey. And so she switched her stage on.

Her stage was fully automated so her next task was to go to the end of the line to line up with some others, whose task was also complete, and watch. She didn't have to wait too long there before a new Dalek rolled off the line. Ten rels later, another followed it. Then another. Then another. The first word out of each of their speakers was "EXTERMINATE!"

She understood now why the ship had so much empty space, and how they'd activated that boarding party so quickly. The Daleks kept their crew at a minimum in non combat situations to save resources. But they were always ready, at short notice to produce any number of reinforcements they needed. Starting with little, they could have a full invasion force, ready to invade a world like Weatley in less than ten hours. It was one thing to be told that the Daleks had assembled a huge army in a hidden city. Actually watching them coming off the line and seeing just how quickly they could churn out new killing machines was something truly terrifying.

But she wasn't here to just watch. There were eleven other production lines on this ship that they needed to set up. A Dalek was going along their line, assigning a job to each of them. "LEAD 25 DALEKS TO PRODUCTION LINE 8." It said to her.

"I obey." She said and said to the next one off the line. "25 Daleks to form line behind me." She took position in a corridor and waited for a given time, while the next 24 off the line formed up behind her. She led them through the ship's corridors, towards production line 8.

Daleks were moving off the other production lines now and filing towards their assembly points. In an intersection up ahead, the Daleks from production line 4 were crossing the corridor.

Clara knew she couldn't wait for them to pass. They'd left gaps to allow others to filter through anyway. Once more, she focused hard and carefully controlled her speed to avoid a collision. She reached the gap at just the right time and sped through, clearing the Daleks nicely.

But then she heard the sound of metal striking metal behind her. She'd forgotten that the Daleks she was leading were following her every movement and neglected to give them a gap to leave between themselves. Now the Dalek behind her had smacked into one from line 4.

Both of them had moved out of the way of the line 4 Daleks coming through, who continued on, closing up the gap. The Dalek who'd been hit was undamaged, but it was confused. "WHAT HAS HAPPENED? EXPLAIN!"

She'd done it now. She'd made a mistake no Dalek would make. They were going to realise something was up.

With only rels to talk her way out of it, she quickly blurted out. "This one is defective! Yes, you have faulty movement controls. You must be exterminated!" She quickly shot it before it could talk. If she achieved nothing else today, that was one fewer Dalek in the invasion force.

She looked at the other Dalek, who said nothing else. Clearly, it had accepted what she'd said. Breathing a sigh of relief she ordered it. "Take that one's place." And then said to the next Dalek in line. "Lead the others through."

She resumed leading them. This time she ordered them to maintain a two Dalek gap between themselves. The next time they had to cross a path, they cleared it without incident. Finally, she reached production line 8.

"Activate it." She ordered.

"I OBEY." They all said and took up their positions. They were barely 1000 rels old and they were already operating everything as easily as any other Dalek on this ship.

Clara's task required her to look at a panel to ensure everything activated correctly, which it was all doing. As she looked, she glanced round and saw the Daleks from the other machines, streaming through the ship, towards their designated stations.

One Dalek was not forming the streams. It approached her. "REPORT."

Was it the same one that had ordered her here? They all looked the same. "Production line 8 is in operation. The first new Daleks are about to come off it."

"GOOD. LEAD THEM TO STORAGE BAY 3."

"I obey." As the first Daleks rolled off the line, she ordered them to follow her. She was only at their head for a short time before they merged with streams moving from production lines 7 and 9. "Form a two Dalek gap between yourselves." She ordered her column and they merged with no problem.

Clara imagined a group of humans all trying to get in somewhere at once. Imagined them forming a slow moving traffic jam. But the Daleks seemed to have the whole thing sussed. They barely needed to slow down to get to storage en masse

Spaced around the outer rim of the ship, there were four huge chambers, which seemed to rise the full length of the ship. The floor was made up of a series of platforms, plied on top of each other. Each was mounted on huge gears running up the wall, which could raise it up and down to be set at to any height. These were essentially unfolding storage units, ready to be filled up with any Daleks which would be needed but not just yet. A means of keeping them out of their way until they needed to be deployed. Coming into the chamber, she could see that at least one platform had already been raised and was now half a metre above her dome. Through the floor, she could feel hundreds of Daleks on the level above.

Clara entered and moved to her mark. She saw that it was directly behind one Dalek and to the left of another. As another Dalek formed in on her left, Clara realised that she wasn't here to direct the Daleks into storage. She was here to go in with them. Sue enough. More Daleks formed ranks behind her. And more behind them.

She'd allowed herself to believe that she was in some way important to the Daleks. A part of the Supreme's crew who would be clear from the crowds, and hopefully far from the front lines. But really, they saw her like every other Dalek. Only good for whatever task they needed someone to do. With thousands of Daleks on this ship now, there were not enough tasks to go around and there was little chance she'd be set apart from the others.

She then heard a whirring sound as the platform raised them all up. Now there was no way out of this unit. She'd just have to sit here until the Daleks needed her. Sit completely still and stare at the wall. Below her, she felt hundreds more Daleks gathering before the platform raised up once more. Before long, her proximity senses were overwhelmed by thousands of Daleks right left, front, back, up and down. More than ever, she felt like a cog in the Daleks' machine.

She contented herself with the thought that it would only be for a few hours. And the information cluster wouldn't be injecting anything into her mind in that time. She would be clearer headed than she'd been in a while.

But, as she rose through the ship, her mind increasingly brought up thoughts about what was going to happen to her. The Daleks would only move her out of storage once the battle was joined. She'd be deployed straight into a war zone much more terrible than anything she'd seen before. Even to get to that point, millions would have to die already. Something she badly wanted to avoid.

She might not even make it to that point. The people of Weatley would aim to take down the flagship. If they won, great. The only problem was, she'd go down with them. In her mind's eye, she imagined the Doctor arriving to save the planet and blowing up the whole fleet, only to find her body among the ruins.

And then there was the third possibility. That the Daleks would make a strategic withdrawal before she could be deployed. What would happen to her then? Would she be dismantled? Or would she be left in storage indefinitely? Her whole world reduced to two square metres on the floor, in complete silence for what could be the rest of her life?

Clara had to think positively. She thought of the people who would be saved in the latter two cases. And she imagined outlandish scenarios where the battle would blast this space open and she'd be flung out and go to find someone who'd help her out of the suit. She'd then help them all fight off the Daleks once and for all. She pictured herself sitting in the TARDIS, telling the Doctor the story of how she'd got out of all this. She just needed to get to that bit, so she'd know what to tell him.

* * *

 **Author's notes: To answer a couple of comments. I don't currently plan to bring the Doctor into the story as I'm just enjoying writing about what the Daleks are like when he's not there to stop them. I may write in people like River or Jenny or some of the Doctor's other friends if I can find a way to work them into the story.**


	5. March Of The Daleks

Chapter 5: March Of The Daleks

Clara watched the chronometer counting towards the time when battle would be joined and she'd find out her ultimate fate. One part of her mind dreading it, the other wanting to get this over with.

She took her mind off things by using the time to do her stretches. She wasn't sure what effect the Dalek life support was having on her body as a whole, but she imagined her muscles might decay from lack of use. She had to have them at the ready once she got an opportunity to escape so she'd worked out a series of stretches she could do within her suit. The main problem was, she couldn't move her legs. Though she could still feel them, she wasn't certain she'd be able to run if she needed to.

The time was coming closer and the feeling of uncertainty grew. Were they still on course? Had the fleet turned back? Had the humans moved out to intercept? She hated not knowing.

Finally, at the scheduled time, a huge whooshing roar rumbled throughout the ship. The first shot had been fired.

But it would be a lot more time before she was personally thrown into battle. She could no longer take her mind off things, now all she could do was listen for noises and try to guess what was going on. She could hear the sounds of zapps and pews and other strange pieces of machinery, which she guessed to be the Daleks weapons firing. Within minutes of the attack starting, she began to hear thumps as the defenders returned fire. She also heard familiar sounds coming from the engines, which were being run on full to perform rapid manoeuvres. But the ground below her still felt still due to the inertia compensators in the ship and her suit.

While she rooted for the humans, she still drew in breath every time they managed a hit. Every thump could be the blow that would start a chain reaction and destroy her in seconds. She wondered how anyone could ever fly into battles in space, knowing how little back up there was if something went wrong, and that any second their only protection against the vacuum of space could abruptly disappear around them.

But the return fire was coming in sporadic bursts, whereas the Daleks were firing constantly. As the hours went by, the blows to the ship got less and less. Clearly, things weren't going well for the defenders. The Daleks must have achieved surprise. The people of Weatley had technology millennia in advance of Clara's time, but it still wasn't enough to stop the Dalek armada. 400 ships. 2000 Daleks on each 30,000 more on the flagship. That was 830,000 death machines bearing down on you. Even the timelords couldn't repel a full invasion, what chance did this lot have?

Clara thought about the plans she'd heard in the war room. She'd only been able to remember the bare bones after the information cluster had extracted the rest. But it was enough. First, they'd eliminate the space fleet. Then they'd split into groups, one would bombard the planet from orbit, the other would descend and take out military installations all over the planet. The ships in orbit would then descend to seize strategic points. The flagship, and a few support vessels, would be the last to drop.

The engine noises were also powering down. The ship was presumably in a stable orbit now, firing down on the planet. With the Daleks controlling orbiting space, the battle was as good as won, though the fighting would be fierce, it was only a matter of time before they were overrun.

For several more hours, the sounds of the Daleks big guns were all she had to listen to. She thought of planet was burning below her and how she was helpless to do anything. She was just glad she didn't have to watch.

Within her machine, there was a speaker, used by the Daleks for blanket broadcasts. Now, it finally came on. "WE ARE BEGINING OUR ASSAULT UPON THE CAPITAL. HERE ARE YOUR ORDERS FOR THE COMING BATTLE…"

Once it had finished talking, the information was injected into Clara's head once more. Once more, she hummed some music from Murry Gold's orchestra to block out the screaming. It contained her place in the battle, along with an update on the strategic situation. But, once more, they'd supplied her with all the Daleks' combat strategies, along with the atrocities they entailed.

Through the hull, Clara heard a roaring sound as the ship dropped into the atmosphere. Now she could hear much more of the fighting than she could from space. Blasts and zaps and the roar of other ships' engines penetrated through and she imagined that the skies outside must be practically alight.

According to the information she'd been fed, the Daleks had , so far, left the capital relatively untouched. This meant they could do the maximum amount of damage elsewhere before forcing a surrender. Now the flagship was here to strike the killer blow.

They hovered for a little while. The support ships were landing at key choke points around the city, before fanning out to form a ring around it. The only place they left open was the main road into the city. And that was where the flagship was about to land.

As they moved in, the sounds of screaming were added to the mix. This road must be crawling with refuges. Clara also heard the sound of bullets and lasers ricocheting off the hull. As Daleks began to be unloaded from the ship, cries of "EXTERMINATE" were added in and the screaming only intensified, but soon died away. The battle was moving away from them and into the city.

Storage bays 1 and 2 would be unloaded first, a process that took about 15 minutes. In that time, the sound of battle would flare up every now and then as the humans tried to launch an attack against the ship. Each time, the Daleks beat them back.

Finally, the floor below her began to descend once more. She was on her way out. Upon reaching the ground, she followed her assigned route out onto the ramp and finally the street, where she took her position near the middle of the Dalek column that was moving steadily forward.

This was the Daleks' plan to intimidate the government. 30,000 of them, advancing down the main road, 20 abreast, 2 kilometres long, with their heavy battle tanks at the head and supported by the saucers and Daleks flying overhead. An overwhelming mass of dalekanium bearing down on you.

Now she was in the thick of the battle, Clara could see a city burning around her. The Daleks already controlled the skies and they were firing down on the people below. Meanwhile the ring around the city was slowly closing in.

Clara looked around for some way to slip away in the confusion. There were too many Daleks on either side of her, but she could try elevating. She'd barely risen a foot when the Daleks around demanded to know where she was going, and she didn't have an answer for them so she returned to the ground, explaining she was testing a system. Above her, she saw five Daleks being taken out by anti aircraft fire and decided that this may not be the best time to run. The safest place to be was to stay in the column as it carried her onwards.

A kilometre ahead of her, Clara could see the flashes of explosions and the ever present column of smoke as the head of the column flattened everything in their path. The lead Daleks would then use their shapes to plough the wreckage into the gaps between themselves. Clara saw it all as she went by. Weapons, barricades, vehicle parts and, of course, bodies. She was pleased to see plenty of smashed Daleks among the wreckage too. Clearly, someone was making a fight of it.

Every now and then, she'd see some Daleks peeling off the sides to deal with a flanking manoeuvre, while the air cover moved in overhead to give them support. Back in the column, the Daleks behind moved in to close the gap.

A couple of times, she saw these flanking manoeuvres make it through and shoot some gaps in the column. The first time, they simply took up positions by the roadside and fired down on them. The Daleks brought their guns around to return fire but kept pressing onwards. What ultimately happened to them, she never found out.

The only dangerous moment for her came when some of the defenders somehow got a few tanks round and hit the column from the side, driving a wedge right across the road. The Daleks all fired up at them, while Clara fired over their heads, but found the tank armour had been specially designed for stopping their weapons.

The tanks started to take out the Daleks between her and it, but they'd been ordered to keep moving, no matter what so they pressed into the meat grinder. The number of Daleks between her and them was dropping and she'd soon be right in the firing line. Even if she ran, it would single her out.

Luckily for her, the air cover arrived just in time to destroy the tanks. Within rels, they'd reduced them to shards of metal.

As time went by, they were getting closer and closer to the city centre. No matter how many they lost they just kept going. Behind them, the rear of the column was breaking off to widen the wedge, while the ring around the city was still moving inwards, though not as fast as them.

Finally, a human voice was relayed into her speakers. "This is President Summers of the Planet Weatley. We surrender… Unconditionally."

This created the closest that could amount to a cheer from the Daleks. "THE DALEKS ARE THE MASTERS OF WEATLEY! THE DALEKS ARE THE MASTERS OF WEATLEY! THE DALEKS ARE THE MASTERS OF WEATLEY!"

* * *

Within an hour, 10000 Daleks had gathered in the city's main square, with thousands more hovering overhead, Clara included. They were there to produce an intimidating sight for the government of the planet. The only space they'd left clear was a small passageway, where the President, and a few of her top ministers, were led towards a platform in the centre for a meeting with the Dalek Supreme.

Though the main battle was over buy now, the sounds of fighting could still be heard all around them where pockets of resistance had elected to fight to the death.

As the President met the Supreme, the contents of the meeting were piped into her suit's speakers.

The President was trying to act tough, demanding her people be well treated, but the Daleks were having none of it. "THE PEOPLE WILL BE MOVED INTO LABOUR CAMPS. THEY WILL BE FED AND SHELTERED ON THE CONDITION THAT THEY OBEY US."

"They'll work them to death." Her Vice President hissed, perhaps thinking the Daleks couldn't hear. They could but just didn't care.

"Do you think I don't know that?" She hissed back, then said to the Daleks. "There are many who will resist such treatment."

"THEN YOU WILL ORDER THEM TO CEASE."

"What do you mean?"

"YOU ARE THE RULER OF THIS WORLD. YOU CAN STAY IN POWER IF YOU WILL WORK WITH US."

"Work for you. As puppets you mean." The Vice President didn't bother hiding his voice now.

"Quiet." She said. "Why… What is there to gain from working for… with you?"

"IF YOU CAN PROVE VALUABLE ALLIES, WE CAN WORK TOGETHER TO PURIFY THE GALAXY. IF YOU RESIST, WE WILL HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO EXTERMINATE YOU ALL."

The President paused. "Then we accept."

This enraged the vice President. "You can't work with the Daleks! Do you think they won't just kill us anyway?"

"Do you have a better idea?" She shouted back, now openly arguing for all to hear. "We might be able to force concessions. We have to try."

The vice President had little to say after that. And the President signed the surrender the Daleks had shown her. Not that they needed the paperwork, it was just to establish that she was working for them now. She was led to a private chamber to discuss details.

The whole invasion was over within a day. Now came the task of occupying the planet.


	6. The Colony Of Ruins

**Chapter 6: The Colony Of Ruins**

While she'd been fixing systems on the ship, the Dalek's cruelties had existed only in theory. Now, she was seeing them in practice.

Clara soon found that she was on her own much less frequently too. It left little hope of slipping away undetected. She had to do what she could from her assigned station. And now that there was no end to a lot of tasks, she could be at each one for a long time.

One of the first tasks she'd been given was to stand guard at the side of the procession of slaves who were being herded into labour camps. Almost a week, she'd been left there, hardly moving from the spot.

Eventually, all the people had either been forced from their homes or gone into hiding. Now she was ordered to move on to guarding the camp itself. Here, she saw 20000 people crammed into a few streets, with perhaps 100 houses. The Daleks fed them, but there was very little medicine, or sanitation, or organisation. The people were living in their own filth.

It was almost a relief when daybreak came and she was ordered to take parties out for hard labour. The Daleks had begun mining operations elsewhere by now. Here, the humans were responsible for preparing the ground for a series of factories and refineries the Daleks had planned. All backbreaking work. And all done with no rest.

The Daleks themselves weren't responsible for the work though. That job fell to the troops that the collaborationist government had supplied. This was under the theory that they could motivate their fellow humans better. But they wouldn't hesitate to drive them with the rod, knowing the Daleks would severely punish them if they failed to meet their extortionate daily targets.

The main hope for these people came from the resistance movements, which had sprung up everywhere. News would filter through now and then of spectacular raids and ambushes the resistance had conducted, or even labour camps, like their own, where the resistance had breached the perimeter and liberated everyone within.

The Daleks were doing their best to quash this hope. They'd announced that for every Dalek destroyed by the resistance, they would shoot 10 people within the nearest camp. This led to the people trying to keep clear of the perimeter. The (now puppet) President would make regular blanket broadcasts, urging any rebels who were listening to lay down their arms for the sake of the people.

"Fat chance." She'd overheard a couple of collaborationist guards muttering on one occasion. "They all know the Daleks'll work 'em to death anyway. At least it's a quick death."

Several times she'd considered trying to talk to one of the humans. But she'd always decided against it. Everywhere the slaves went was crawling with Daleks and robomen. Patrolling night and day. One of them would see her climbing out of her casing and have a few awkward questions. If her legs indeed were not working, they'd shoot her, as she'd seen them do to others who were unfit to work.

But worse than that, they might label her a trouble maker. The people caught trying to escape, or fighting with the guards, or most other offences, were singled out for robotisation. The robomen, with no armour to protect them, were regular casualties in the resistance's attacks, so they needed to keep the numbers up. Every now and then, parties of them were led away to the chambers in the ships. Inevitably, a time came when that task fell to her.

Knowing that the prisoners, with nothing left to loose, would likely make a run for it. They had assigned eight Daleks to form a tight ring around the twelve person party, as they marched them to a ship parked a couple of miles away.

The only way Clara had been able to live with herself throughout all this was to make as many "mistakes" as she could. Now that the situation was more fluid, she had plenty of opportunities. She'd exaggerate production reports when asked to read them off, turn a blind eye to smugglers and escape attempts within the camp and even distract other Daleks at key moments. Now faced with the prospect of pushing twelve people into a mind wiping chamber, she decided to try something more daring.

As they moved along a pathway by a forest, Clara turned her eyestalk to a ridge line on their right. "Movement detected!" She shouted and fired a rapid burst of shots at random points along the crest of the ridge.

"WHERE IS IT?" The Daleks demanded, halting and looking around at where she was shooting.

"They must have ducked down. There's one!" She fired somewhere they weren't looking, increasing the confusion.

Just as she'd hoped, the Daleks were breaking formation to look for non existent rebels. But there was only so long she could keep them distracted.

That was time enough. A woman in the crowd had found a large stone on the ground and brought it down on the nearest Dalek's eyestalk. She fled for the trees, with the rest soon following.

One hesitated a few rels longer than the others. Clara pointed her gun at him. "Halt! Do not move!" That spurred him into action and he ran. She fired into the spot where he'd just been, Hitting a Dalek behind him in the gun.

The other Daleks quickly formed up and fired at the retreating humans, hitting two of them. Paralysing rather than killing.

A Dalek turned to some of the others. "YOU TWO, DRAG THEM TO THE SHIP. YOU WILL GO BACK TO THE CAMP AND TELL THEM TO PREPARE TO MARCH OUT TEN MORE PRISONERS. THE REST WILL FORM A SEARCH PARTY AND LOOK FOR THE OTHERS."

To her immense relief, they never found those who'd escaped. To her further relief, she wasn't ordered back to the camp once the search was complete. Instead, she was sent to patrol a different area for rebels.

She'd been trying to get into the patrols for ages now. Partially because it took her away from the slave labour she was technically aiding, partially because she hoped she might find some resistance people to assist her. But she soon found this task as frustrating as everything else. Almost everywhere she went, the Daleks were patrolling in groups. All the better to cover each other. All the better to stop her going off alone.

Occasionally, they'd meet up with rebels or refugees and fire on any that didn't put their hands up. So far, Clara hadn't been forced into a situation where she'd have no choice but to kill somebody, but she knew it was only a matter of time.

The Daleks were in the process of cordoning off areas where the rebels proved a nuisance, and sweeping them through. If they didn't need the space at all, they'd carpet bomb it. Fortunately, they were on the human's turf and they were getting good at slipping through the cracks.

On occasions, she'd been sent off alone, or found an excuse to break off from the pack. But even this was getting her nowhere. She had to report back to a certain point by a certain time before the Daleks would search for her. If they couldn't find her, they'd declare her destroyed and shoot ten prisoners.

She tried to use this time to look for help, but soon found that the humans had gotten very good at evading Daleks, particularly lone ones. She saw fleeting glimpses here and there, but they always fled for the hills before she could say anything.

That was when they didn't attack. A lone Dalek made a tempting target. On one occasion, she was patrolling a street in a ruined city when she saw something move through the air in front of her. She recognised its shape as a Dal bomb. Something the resistance had built specially to smash their casings. The bomb missed her and flew through a smashed window, blowing up the room upon impact.

This was followed by several shots, aimed at her eyestalk. She didn't wait to see if they had more bombs, she just elevated out of there.

Those were her choices then. Rebels, refugees, prisoners, or Daleks. One would blow her up before she could speak. One would flee the continent at the sight of her. One would get her caught by the Daleks. And one would purge her mind and turn her into a puppet to their will. The feeling of despair was only getting harder to hold back when rescue was always so close, and yet so far away.

* * *

Clara had calculated that it was six weeks now that she'd been trapped in this armoured cage.

Today, she was patrolling by a river. There was a rebel cell that was hemmed in by it.. Their task was to stop them crossing, while another group of Daleks pressed in from the other side.

There were several patrols of robomen supporting them, filling in the gaps. From her position on the riverbank, Clara watched through her stalk's infra red mode. There was a long straight path they'd cleared through the trees, which a column of robomen was marching along.

Just then a roboman, at the back of the column ducked out and hid behind a bush. The figure looked around, unaware that Clara could see them, and unable to see her. They were lucky it was only Clara watching at this point.

The figure hurried down to a rock formation. Clara had to find out more. She quickly said to the Dalek she was patrolling with. "I need to redirect some robomen. Continue the patrol."

"I OBEY." It said.

Fortunately, their patrol route took them away from the rocks so she was able to approach them alone and arrive within earshot of it.

The roboman, or woman rather, though that seemed to be a gender neutral term, stood casually by the rocks and said "How now."

"Brown cow." Said a male voice within the rocks. "Hello Sarah."

"Don't use that name." Sarah hissed. "I only have a few minutes so listen carefully. The patrol's are thinnest around Cally's Rock. They don't expect you to cross there. The northern group are planning an attack at first light tomorrow to distract them. Move then. Swim back and tell the others. Got to go." She then dashed off as the next wave of patrols moved in.

So this woman was a spy, posing as a roboman. An opportunity. She considered talking to the man in the rocks but didn't want to risk leading the Daleks to him. Sarah was the key.

Clara tailed the woman as she hurried ahead of the Daleks and slipped into position at the back of the robomen once more.

"Halt." She ordered them, before singling Sarah out and ordering the rest on. "Your name is Sarah."

"I do not remember." She said, with all the blankness of the rest of the robomen she was good at her job.

"I need your assistance." Said Clara.

"What is it?"

Clara felt for the Daleks in the next patrol, advancing up the straight path. They were close enough to see her, which ruled out opening her casing, but they wouldn't be in earshot for a couple of minutes..

"I am a human female trapped in a Dalek casing." She explained. "I need your help to contact the resistance so they can extract me. I saw you talking to that man in the rocks."

Sarah looked at her blankly, though Clara could detect some confusion in her eyes. She wasn't sure if she believed her.

"Listen." Clara elbowed the inside of her casing. "Daleks are squidgy. They can't make that noise. If you believe me, meet me in the place you call Blue Wood Stream at first light. Once the attack starts."

Felling the Daleks cone within earshot, Clara moved back to her assigned patrol. She didn't know if Sarah believed her. Hopefully something she'd said would convince her, or just the fact that Clara wouldn't report her. She knew there was a good chance Sarah would ignore her, or would be unable to help her. But finally, she had something she'd been lacking for several weeks. She had an immediate hope.


	7. Rebels

**Chapter 7: Rebels**

Clara had already been patrolling this river bank non stop for three days. She'd gotten used to repetition by now. But all being well, this could be the last night for her.

As dawn broke, the sound of shooting started, as the Northern Group made their attack. The Dalek Leader in the area issued a blanket order to them. "UNDER ATTACK FROM THE NOTH EAST. EVERY SECOND DALEK IS TO FORM A LINE ACROSS THE EDGE OF THE MOOR. THE REST REMAIN AT YOUR STATIONS."

"I WILL JOIN THE BATTLE." Said her colleague, and moved away.

Clara watched it go, and hurriedly moved towards the point she'd given. There were a lot of Daleks moving about, seemingly at random, so few paid attention to her.

Blue Wood Stream was a little clearing by the river bank, bordered by thick undergrowth. The perfect place for a secret meeting.

Clara arrived to find the place deserted. That was fine, she just had to wait a while. The rels ticked by but no sign of anybody. Her mind was full of things that might have gone wrong. Sarah might not have believed her. She might not have been ably to contact help. She might have got caught coming this way. Clara would have liked to have given her more time to plan, but there was no guarantee they'd be nearby tomorrow.

Finally, Sarah announced herself with a little clunk on the back of Clara's armour. "I've attached a jammer to you, so you can't call for help. And I have a gun aimed at your eyestalk. So you'd better not be trying to trick me." She came round Clara's front. "Open up."

Clara readily did so. Almost crying with relief. Finally, it was over.

Sarah leaned over, looking stunned. "I didn't think this was possible. How did this happen?"

"I was tricked." Said Clara. "The woman who put me in ran off and I was stranded. I can't pull these probes from my head. Get them out!"

But Sarah now looked sombre. "I'm sorry, but I can't."

"What do you mean you cannot?" Clara shouted. Her still Dalek voice echoing round the trees. They both looked round in fear, but no one came their way. "Please." She said more quietly. "It'll close soon. Then it is three more hours before I can open it again."

"I'm sorry." She said again. "They'd only agree to take the risk if you brought them an intact casing. Plus, I don't know if I can get you through the lines like this. It's best for everybody if you close up."

Clara sighed. What she said made sense. "Just one thing first."

"What's that?"

"Shake my hand."

Confused, Sarah did so. Clara relished the first contact she'd had with the outside world in six weeks, which she explained to her. She then told her to withdraw and closed up. She could take another three hours.

"You need to go underwater." Said Sarah. Follow the riverbed downstream until you reach a steel cable stretched some of the way across. There's people waiting to meet you on the bank." She pulled a watertight bag from her pocket and pulled a small device from her hair. "I've been filming our meeting. I'm tying this bag to your eyestalk so they'll know it's you."

Clara thanked her and went to hover over the river, before descending into the water.

Her suit was airtight. She'd worked that out when they'd sent her to investigate a scratch on the outside of the ship once. The systems inside were constantly cleaning the air to make it breathable. Scaro's atmosphere, it seemed, was roughly the same as Earth's, or at least had been at one time.

She felt which way the current was going and moved with it, keeping as close to the bank as she could without becoming visible. She didn't want to miss that line and end up in the middle of the sea. It was odd, she'd got so used to having precise route maps imprinted on her brain that moving independently now made her feel a little uneasy.

After about an hour, she found the line and moved up to the bank, where she found a couple waiting, with masked faces and Dal bombs raised.

One of them approached her and found the bag attached to her eye stalk. "It's the right one." He said. "Follow us." But first, he placed something over her gun. "If you fire your gun, It'll set it off."

So these people didn't trust her then. They led her to an inconspicuous patch of ground nearby, but peeled back the turf to reveal a hatchway, which they beckoned her through. It was a listening post for the resistance. They had them scattered all over the areas they operated in. A place to keep out of sight for a little while.

"Let's see inside." Said the woman.

"I cannot open for another 6058 rels." Said Clara.

"Well that's convenient." She muttered.

"Sarah gave her the video." Said the man. "It must have convinced her."

"It could have killed her straight afterwards."

"We should still watch it."

They plugged the data chip into a screen nearby and watched through the video. "She looks human." The man said.

"Could be a duplicate. They've infiltrated other cells that way. We can't just let it in, there's too many ways it could be a trap. It's going to kill us all!"

"I am sitting right here." Said Clara.

The woman turned round. "If you're human, tell us your name."

"It will not allow me."

"It's one trick after another!" She cried. "Why are we even talking to it?"

"I was born in Blackpool. When I was a kid, I used to climb around under the pier with my enemies… My.. people I knew. Everything I try to say gets fed through a Dalek processor. It is difficult, but please listen…" She spent a lot longer listing off everything that came to mind about her personal life, she tried singing at one point, but it sounded wrong coming out of her speakers. Plus it kept changing the words. Instead, she tapped out Beethoven's fifth symphony on the inside of the casing. But it was getting no where. The woman had made her mind up that it was a trap and wasn't backing down.

But finally, coincidence smiled down on her as the entrance came open once more. "David and Caz? I need to talk to you."

That was useful. The Daleks had fed her the names of all known resistance leaders when she'd been assigned to this sector. David and Caz Clarke were very important in the Northern Group. The single largest resistance cell. But it was the new arrival Clara was more excited by. Because she'd met her before

"What are you doing here? You should be off world by now." David was saying to her.

"That's why I needed to talk to you. They've found my ship. They'll probably catch some of the other gun runners, unless we get a message out. Set a new rendezvous."

"Don't discuss it in front of the Dalek." Caz hissed.

The new arrival now noticed Clara for the first time and pulled her gun out. But Clara wasn't alarmed. "Journey Blue." She said.

"How do you know my name?"

"Don't fall for that one. They'll have your image scanned." Said Caz.

"It is me, Dalek! No. I'm human. I met you before, when I was with the Doctor. Show her the video." Said Clara.

"She claims she's a human trapped in a Dalek casing." David explained, as he hit play.

Journey watched and Clara saw her eyes widen at the sight of her. "We helped to investigate rusty. You had just lost your brother."

Journey stared at her. "Clara?" She said.

"Yes." Clara said, relieved to hear someone call her by her own name at last.

"What have they done to you?"

"I was tricked. Now I cannot escape unless someone assists."

"They've replicated real people before." Said Caz.

"Yeah, but they don't know I'm here. No one else knows her in this time. Why would they? Don't worry Clara. We'll get you out." Said Journey.

"So we're just going to believe it then?" Said Caz.

"That seems to be the consensus." Said David. "How long 'till you can open the casing?"

"About an hour and 20 minutes." Said Clara.

"We'll use that time to get you back to base. The techs want to study an intact suit." He took a look through the periscope. "The Daleks will be out patrolling, but they'll be focusing on the area the attack happened. We'll need to move while they're busy."

They moved along. The humans dodging from one hiding place to another, looking around before moving on. Clara remained in the open. The Daleks weren't looking for her. She counted on her chronometer. It was now barely half an hour until she could leave the suit for good.

As they crossed an open moor, keeping low to stay hidden by the long grass, her more sensitive hearing picked up the sound of footsteps behind them. "We are being followed." She said.

David and Caz came up alongside her and they went to have a look. A man emerged from his own hiding place, looking relaxed. He clearly wasn't a roboman, but the Clarkes raised their guns at the sight of him. "Maddock! What are you doing here?"

"Your guns won't do you a lot of good, I'm afraid. There's ten of my lot around you. They'll shoot you down. So perhaps we can talk."

Clara recognised this man from the information cluster too. He was Ian Maddock, the leader of a resistance cell known as the Weatley Liberation Front.

"What do you want?"

"Well, a little birdie told me that you were going to meet a Dalek defector. We want it."

"And you can't have it!" Shouted Caz. "Our scientists need to study it."

"And so do ours! We're holding the factory region. We can build some more. Come out of hiding. Take these Daleks on properly!"

"That's why you can't have it." Said Caz. "We're not letting you loose with an army of these things. You'd just set yourself up as head of this planet!"

"And you wouldn't do the same?" Said Maddock. "Or would you just hand it back to Summers, or crawl back to the federation? Weatley needs to be properly independent! Now are you going to hand it over peacefully, or do you want to be the next two casualties of war?"

"Shoot him Clara." Said David.

"What?"

"Shoot him!"

"No!"

"Clara." Said Caz. "He's a bandit. He loots and demands payments from refugees. And he's been raiding our supplies."

"We needed them more!" Shouted Maddock. "You withheld them from us. Plus, we're rebels! Clue's in the name."

"I am not taking sides in your private war!" Shouted Clara. "Why can you not just unite against the common enemy?"

"Well, looks like you're getting no help from it!" Maddock grinned, raising his gun.

"Screw this." Said Caz, and dropped a charge, enveloping them in thick smoke. The Clarkes promptly fled for the long grass. Shooting quickly sprang up here and there.

"Stop shooting! People will hear!" Clara shouted, but no one listened.

"Clara!" Said Journey's voice. "Let's get out of here."

Clara's infra red sight could pick up everyone's body heat. She identified the thinnest point and led Journey towards it.

"Look!" Someone shouted and began shooting up at the sky, before a Dalek death ray responded. A flying patrol had zoned in on their position and was now rapidly going after the rebels below.

Journey was looking around for a way out but long grass could only hide you from cursory patrols. Now the Daleks were homing in on this location, it was only a matter of time. Fortunately, Clara had an idea. "Journey. Trust me." She said and hit her with a blast to paralyse her legs. "The effect will wear off. Just keep quiet and I will lead you out."

She placed her sucker on Journey's shoulder and waited for the Daleks to come down. As a Dalek came near, she said. "This one has information that is of value to us. We should take her for questioning." It was the only way she knew to prevent the Daleks from robotising her, or just exterminating her on the spot.

"A SHIP WILL BE ARIVING SOON TO PICK UP THE PRISONERS." Said the Dalek.

She'd missed an opportunity by inches. But the game wasn't up yet.


	8. Colaborators

**Chapter 8: Collaborators:**

A Dalek saucer was there within the hour. Robomen emerged from the hatch to take the prisoners in. Clara ordered them onwards. She had to make sure she finished up on board the ship, rather than sent back out to patrol.

She led her to the cells and ordered them to throw her in one of them. Journey, who still hadn't recovered her legs, glared at Clara from the ground.

Clara waited a moment, before another Dalek ordered her to lock the door. While Daleks could access the data cluster at will, she'd never worked out how, and was too afraid to try. She could only gain from it when they issued her orders. As she locked the door, she made a special effort to hold on to the memory of how to do it.

"I will report these prisoners to the bridge." She said and headed in the direction she hoped was the centre of the ship. Fortunately, she was able to rely on Dalek efficiency. Their saucers all had approximately the same layout, allowing her to find the bridge quite quickly. Once she'd explained that Journey was an important smuggler, she was ordered to take observation position 5.

Clara placed her arm on the control knob. The view from her eye stalk was instantly replaced with a split screen of several cameras around the ship. One Dalek couldn't monitor all of them at once so it was divided between a group of them, each monitoring a selection. Now that they'd landed, they needed to activate 10 more around the perimeter, that was now her job to watch.

There were two more that had also been newly activated, showing the cells. She was pleased to see that Journey was being left untouched for now, and hurriedly rubbing some life into her legs.

They weren't interrogating her yet, it seemed, because they were far more interested in their other captive. While the Clarkes had gone down fighting, Maddock had surrendered. The Daleks had recognised him and were now torturing him for information. They recognised the need to keep a subject alive and healthy enough to talk, so their torture methods involved a device designed to simulate nerve endings and make the victim feel as though they were being stabbed anywhere the Daleks directed it. They would beg for death by the end.

Clara wasn't just horrified by the agony he must be undergoing. She was concerned for her own safety, and that of Journey. If he revealed there was a human hidden among the Daleks… But he didn't do so for several hours. Meanwhile, she watched Journey taking some unstable steps in her cell. Perhaps disabling her had been a mistake. Or did she have to make it look convincing?

The Daleks were listing to Maddock all the horrible things they were planning to do to him. Promising that if he didn't talk, they would, very slowly, tear him apart and leave him a mangled wreck, but still alive.

"What if… we could make a deal." Said Maddock.

"EXPLAIN."

"I'm more use to you mobile. I've got an idea of how we can help each other out. But I'll only share it with the Leader. In person."

The Daleks paused for a minute, then turned to the Camera. "REPORT TO THE LEADER."

Clara disengaged from the console, but not before she quietly switched off the camera and mike in Journey's cell. The woman was walking freely now, just a bit of stumbling. All Clara needed to do was slip away and she could lead her out.

But then what? Leaving the suit wouldn't be the end. She would still be stranded on a Dalek occupied world. And she'd helped them, even under duress. She wasn't the Doctor. How was she supposed to put this right?

But one problem at a time. She told the Leader what she'd seen. It issued an order over the communication system to bring Maddock to the bridge, then ordered Clara and three others to form a semi circle, facing inwards. The two Daleks who led Maddock up were to form in the gap, creating a ring around him.

With the arrangements now complete, the Leader said to him "WHAT ARE YOU SUGESTING?"

Maddock was looking at the Daleks around him, blatantly thinking _Which is it?_ Clara held her breath, terrified that he was about to trade her for his own life.

But when he spoke, what he actually suggested was much worse. "Well, it seems to me that we have a common enemy. The northern group's been interfering with us from the start. But now they've lost their leaders, they'll be disarrayed for a bit. And I know how to get to their head quarters, 'cos I've been there before. If you let me go, I can set up a homing signal, and you lot can knock them out. One less rebel cell for you. One less obstacle for me. What do you say?"

The Leader was silent. Clearly, it was considering. "I WILL CONSULT WITH THE DALEK SUPREME." Said the Leader. It brought up a video link of it on the big screen and relayed what had been said.

"THE DALEKS HAVE NO WISH TO SIMPLY END A PERSONAL WAR." It said. "HOWEVER, YOU MAY BE OF ASSISTANCE TO US."

"How?" Said Maddock.

"THE NORTHERN GROUP ARE IN CONTACT WITH SEVERAL OF THE BIGEST RESISTANCE MOVEMENTS ON THE PLANET. DALEK TECHNOLOGY, PLANTED IN THEIR OPPERATIONS ROOM, CAN TRACK THE SIGNAL AND REVEAL THE LOCATION OF THEIR BASES. WE CAN DESTROY THE REBELS ONCE AND FOR ALL. YOU WILL PLANT IT."

"What's in it for me?" Said Maddock. "Besides not dying."

"IT HAS COME TO OUR ATTENTION THAT YOU WISH TO BUILD YOUR OWN ARMY OF DALEK MACHINES AND TAKE THE PLANET FOR YOURSELF."

"Well… yeah."

"WE APPLAUD YOUR AIMS. WE WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH THE MATERIALS TO DO SO. THE PRESIDENT HAS FAILED TO SUPPRESS THE REBEL GROUPS. IF YOU CAN DO SO, YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE PLANET FOR YOUR OWN."

"Yeah… but I'd still be your slave."

"WITH THE REBELS GONE, THERE WOULD BE NO NEED FOR OUR OCCUPATION. THE DALEKS WOULD LEAVE, ON CONDITION THAT YOU PROVIDE US WITH THE RESOURCES WE REQUIRE."

His face shifted, as though he couldn't believe his luck. "I could be the man who made the Daleks go. I'd be a hero!"

"Then you will be just like a true Dalek." Clara added, hoping to appeal to his better side. "This world would swap one set of occupiers for another."

But he seemed nonplussed. "Well, we'll work on that. Daleks, I accept."

"EXCELENT. HE WILL BE A POWERFUL ALLY. WEAKEN YOUR PERIMITER TO ALLOW HIM TO ESCAPE."

"I OBEY." Said the Leader. It then ordered some Daleks to make arrangements for Maddock's "escape." The moor they'd landed in was right at the foot of a mountain range, where the Northern group had their headquarters hidden in a cave somewhere. The Daleks planned to move the ship closer to the mountains to make the escape more convincing.

"UNLOCK THE PORT SIDE HATCH." The Supreme ordered her.

"I obey." How many times had she said those words? But she wasn't following orders this time. She and Journey had to warn the Northern Group. Besides, with the guard low, this could be their best chance to escape themselves.

She deliberately veered off her assigned path to bring herself up to Journey's cell. Here she found one Dalek on guard. "I have been ordered to replace you. You are to open the port side maintenance hatch." She said, and the Dalek obeyed.

Clara placed her sucker on the control by the door and concentrated hard. This was the first time she'd tried to operate their technology without orders to do so. Operating their computers required her to send a precise sequence of impulses down the arm. Opening a door was relatively simple, but she had to make several attempts before the door would even twitch. She repeated the sequence she'd just sent with more force and the door came open.

Inside, Journey backed into a corner, staring her down.

"It is me. I have come to get you out." Said Clara.

"How can I trust you?" She said.

"There is no time. We have to get you out. Maddock has made a deal with the Daleks. He is planning to break into the Northern Group's HQ and reveal the positions of all the resistance cells. We have to get out and warn them."

Journey considered. "Ok, I'll have to take your word for it." She approached her, then suddenly brought her fist down hard on the top of her dome.

"OW! What was that for?" Cried Clara.

"To test if it was really you. Also, for disabling me! Recovering your legs realy hurts!"

"How do you think I feel? I've been immobile and felt nothing but pain for six bloody weeks!"

Journey snorted. "I never thought I'd hear a Dalek say that."

"We have to move." Said Clara. "The camera is down but they will switch it back on soon. Walk ahead of me. If anyone asks, I am taking you for questioning."

"Right." The two of them moved down the corridor, with Clara directing her at each junction. They'd not gone far when Journey felt a jolt that Clara didn't. "They're moving the ship."

"Only along the ground." Said Clara. "It means no security when we get outside."

Clara had been given a route to the port side hatch. The symmetrical nature of Dalek ships made the starboard hatch easy to find. But when they got to the hatch, her globes picked up a Dalek coming from an adjacent corridor, which she told Journey.

"Well hurry up with the hatch." She said.

Clara opened the hatch with relative ease, but it took time to descend. This was time enough for the Dalek to see them. "WHERE ARE YOU TAING THE PRISONER?"

"For questioning." Said Clara.

"WHY ARE YOU TAKING HER OUTSIDE?"

"Er…"

Journey interceded. "I promised to show them a place the resistance use for ambushes, in exchange for my freedom."

The Dalek considered. "I HAVE NOT BEEN INFORMED. I WILL CHECK." It turned towards a console on the wall.

"Oh well. That got nowhere." Said Clara. "Exterminate." And she shot the Dalek. "They will have seen that. Quick, get on my back."

Journey quickly stood on Clara's base, wraping her arms around her grill and her legs around her skirts. "I probably should have bought you dinner first." Said Clara, as she moved forward, into the open air. Journey's weight nearly overbalanced her, but quickly recovered enough to descend at an angle.

"There's a gully over there." Journey pointed to the rock wall, 30 feet away. "Hurry."

The two of them moved. Just make it to cover and she could remove her from this machine. They were barely two feet away when her suit abruptly stopped. _Forward,_ she thought, but nothing happened.

"Come on!" Shouted Journey.

"It won't move. Open." But still nothing.

As her sucker arm began to move, unbidden by her, she realised what was happening. "Oh gosh. They are taking remote control! Quick run, before they…" But then her voice cut out.

But Journey had got the gist and fled into the gulley before they took control of the gun.

A small group of Daleks soon came out of the ship but found the gulley to narrow to follow her in. "SEARCH THE MOUNTAINS. FIND HER."

But Clara wasn't going with them. She now found she couldn't lift her arms, or move at all. She could only sit still and watch helplessly as her suit spun her around and carried her back into the ship.


	9. Remote Control

**Chapter 9: Remote Control**

The suit carried Clara through the ship and into a lab. It moved over and lined itself up with some markings on the floor.

Two Dalek technicians aimed a scanner at her and she braced herself. The beam hit her and she felt a sensation as though she was being electrocuted, right through her casing and her body. It passed downwards from her dome to her base. Fortunately, it did it quickly.

The computer brought up a holographic model of Clara's suit. The Daleks blanked out the outer casing, leaving only the interior workings, with Clara embedded in them.

The Daleks stared at it silently, as Clara's heart beat furiously. Then they went to a communication panel. "WE ARE TRANSFERING THE MODEL OF THE ROGUE MACHINE'S INTERIOR." They said simply.

Rels later, the Leader responded. "IT WILL BE MOVED TO THE BRIDGE."

Clara's suit moved once more, carrying her forward and deeper into the ship.

She got there and was placed in the centre. Before her, the Leader was mid way through reporting their findings to the Dalek Supreme.

"BRING IT TO THE FLAGSHIP." The Supreme said. "I WILL INVESTIGATE IT PERSONALY."

"UNABLE TO COMPLY." Said the leader. "OUR THRUSTERS HAVE PICKED UP A FAULT. IT WILL TAKE TIME TO REPAIR."

"THEN I WILL BRING THE FLAGSHIP TO YOUR LOCATION." Said the Supreme. "REMAIN WHERE YOU ARE."

"I OBEY."

And that was it. It went to tend to other duties, while Clara was just left to sit and sweat. Not once did they ask her any questions, or even look her way. She was just a problem that they would decide among themselves how to deal with. And now she was just left to wait and see what they had in store for her.

* * *

After several tense hours, they heard the rumble of the flagship's engines powering down and knew that it had landed close by. The Supreme came on the screen again. "DIRECT IT TO THE RESERCH ROOM ON THIS SHIP."

"I OBEY." Said a Dalek operating a panel. Presumably, it was the one controlling her suit.

Clara was carried once more, out of this ship, across to the flagship and through the endless corridors towards where they needed her. Finally, she entered their research room, where she was placed on a position, surrounded by Daleks looking at consoles.

The Dalek Supreme was also there. It brought up a video link of the bridge. "ASSUME CONTROL OF THE SUIT AND OPEN THE CASING."

The casing came open and the Daleks pointed several pieces of equipment at her. "HER IMAGE AND BIOLOGY MATCH THAT OF ONE OF THE DOCTOR'S ASSOSCIATES." Said one of them.

"THE DOCTOR IS HERE!" Roared another.

"THERE HAVE BEEN NO REPORTED SIGHTINGS OF HIM. NONTHELESS, AS AN ASSOCIATE OF THE DOCTOR, SHE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO BREAK FREE. SHE MUST BE EXTERMINATED."

"NO. SHE MAY MAKE A USEFUL HOSTAGE."

"BUT PLACING HER HERE MAY BE PART OF THE DOCTOR'S PLAN. WE SHOULD TORTURE HER FOR INFORMATION."

"THERE IS NO CERTAINTY THE DOCTOR IS HERE. TORTURING HER MAY BRING THEM DOWN ON US. WE SHOULD SIMPLY ROBOTISE HER FOR OUR OWN PURPOSES."

"THAT MAY BE A WASTE OF A CASING. HER MIND IS ALREADY PARTIALY ATTACHED TO THE HIVE. IF WE BROADEN THE LINK, WE CAN CONVERT HER MIND TO THAT OF A DALEK."

And so the debate went on. It wasn't often that the Daleks would debate. Usually, they were so single minded. But this was a rare situation for them, and they had no procedures to fall back on.

Clara, once more, wasn't invited to take part. Even to plead for her life. She could only sit still as they discussed what to do with her. Whether to torture her for information, extract her from the suit and robotise her, keep her as a hostage, just exterminate her on the spot, or activate the Dalek conditioning and turn her mind to theirs'. All horrifying prospects. If she could just intercede and plead with them, even if it was a futile gesture, she'd feel more in control, instead of just awaiting her fate.

As she sat, she fought to overcome whatever paralysing effects the Daleks had put on her. Even just to lift a finger, but they were barely twitching. Nevertheless, she kept trying. Convinced she was getting closer.

After a long time, a Dalek came to interrupt. "THE INFORMANT FROM THE NORTHERN GROUP IS REPORTING HERE."

Whatever Dalek was controlling Clara spun her eye stalk around to look at the door. To Clara's surprise, it was Sarah who came in. The woman looked at Clara, with all the Daleks and scanners pointed at her, and said. "Is this her?"

"YES. WHAT IS YOUR REPORT?"

Sarah awkwardly looked at Clara. "Look, the thing is, I'm actually a double agent. I'm sorry."

"REPORT!" The Daleks shouted at her.

"Ok, ok. Well, Mrs Jones has taken control of the Northern Group now. Journey made it to them and she's warned them all about Maddock, so now they're all on watch for him. They're also planning a mission to rescue Clara, and sent me to find out where she is."

"THEN WE WILL ALLOW THEM TO DO SO." Said the Supreme. "THEY WILL BE EXPECTING HER AT THEIR BASE. MADDOCK CAN USE HER AS A MEANS TO ENTER."

"ONE OF US COULD TAKE HER PLACE." Said another Dalek.

"No." Said Sarah. "They'll need to see inside the suit before they rescue her."

"SHE WILL BE KEPT UNDER REMOTE CONTROL UNTIL THE TASK IS COMPLETE." Said the supreme. "SHE WILL PLANT OUR BUG IN THEIR COMUNICATION EQUIPMENT. THEN SHE WILL BE DESTROYED. TELL THE NORTHERN GROUP SHE IS BEING HELD IN THE CELL WE SHOW YOU. TELL THE WLF TO INTERCEPT THEM ON THE WAY BACK TO CAMP."

"Er, yes, of course." Sarah said. She then turned to Clara. "Look, I have a family here. I need to be thinking about them. You understand of course?"

Clara fumed in her suit and thought about how the Daleks just happened to have found the resistance leaders on the moor. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence. Perhaps they'd been tipped off. Where were all the heroes right now?

"YOUR FAMILY WILL BE WELL CARED FOR." Said the Supreme. "ONCE YOU HAVE AIDED US, THEY WILL BE TRANSPORTED OFF WORLD."

She thanked them as she was led out.

The Supreme turned to Clara. "CAN YOU HEAR THIS FROM YOUR STATION?"

"YES." Clara heard her speakers saying.

"WE WILL HAVE TO TEST YOUR REMOTE ABILITIES. TAKE THIS MACHINE DOWN TO THE HANGER."

"I OBEY."

* * *

Clara spent the rest of the day being run through a series of tests, in which she was driven round a precise course they'd laid out on the floor of the hanger, making her feel like a dog from Crufts.

This was followed by tests on a vertical course. Clara continued battling for any sort of effect on where she was going, just to make it veer off a bit, or overshoot its mark. But nothing would happen. They concluded that her controller could control her casing as accurately as its own.

Next, they tested her speech. While they'd already established that they could control it, they needed to practice a list of human-like phrases in order to pass off as normal. She found her casing saying a quick succession of things like, "I AM OK MATE." And "THANK YOU FOR RESCUING ME."

She wondered if she should have stayed on Scaro. Even a lifetime alone seemed preferable to being toyed with by the Daleks.

The next port of call was to test her weapon. Bizarrely, this involved being led down a corridor, with model TARDISes dotted here and there, which she was to move through and shoot. Who'd come up with this idea and where they were getting the models from, were questions she'd dearly like to know. She supposed it was most likely Davaros, or just someone along the line who wanted to install a sense of directed hatred in the Daleks.

Feeling it shoot the models, Clara finally thought she might have found an opening. The gun was still drawing power from her heightened emotions. And they were running high right now. If she could somehow clear her mind, practice a few meditation techniques shed picked up here and there, she might just be able to stop it. But this was only a theory. She had no idea if it would work and certainly couldn't test it now, least the Daleks realise the flaw in their system and work to correct it. She only hoped she could get some idea before the Daleks directed her to shoot at people.

Finally, a time came when a Dalek entered and informed them that the resistance's rescue party was due within 3600 rels. Clara was then driven to a cell where chains were placed around her to look convincing. The door was locked and she was left to sit and wait to be used to destroy the resistance.

This was worse than being robotised. At least the robomen weren't aware of what they were doing. She was now being piloted around and forced to do the Daleks' bidding. Fully concious. Fully aware of everything that was happening to her, but powerless to stop it.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: Thanks again to all the followers and reviewers so far. Keep 'em coming.**

 **I didn't make up the idea of the Daleks using model TARDISes for target practice by the way. It's lifted from Death To The Daleks.**


	10. The Trap

**Chapter 10: The Trap**

When Clara had taught her class about the Oddesy, she'd taken the time to look up some historical theories about the Trojan Horse (asking the Doctor felt like cheating). One that she'd read suggested that the horse did exist, but was supposed to be a distraction while the Greeks snuck in through other means. The horse was just filled with slaves, fully expecting to die.

It had got her thinking about what it must have been like for the people inside. Knowing they were being sent to their deaths by a king bent on destruction. Now she knew first hand, because she was about to be the Daleks' wooden horse. She hoped the resistance would show more sense than the Trojans.

For once, her time spent waiting and sitting still seemed to pass quickly. It barely seemed like minutes before she heard footsteps outside.

"I've set up a fault down here, so the Daleks can't see you." Sarah's voice was explaining.

The door before her came open, to reveal eight resistance people dressed as robomen. "Watch the gun." Their leader said. "We don't know if we've broken the control." Clara tried moving, just in case, but found they hadn't. But at least they were being wary. "I'm Lieutenant Scott. I'm here to get you out. Are you Clara Oswald?"

"YES, IT IS ME. GET ME OUT OF HERE!" Said the suit.

"Open the casing." He said.

"PLEASE REMOVE THE CHAINS."

Scott sent a woman forward with bolt cutters, who cut the chains free. The suit opened up and the group raised their guns to her. "Why isn't she moving?"

"I don't know. Maybe the paralysis will take a while longer to wear off on her." Said Sarah.

 _Come on. Don't listen to her!_ Clara thought as she focused as much mental energy as she could into two fingers on her right hand. Just break this enough to gesture at Sarah and they might realise something was up. But they barely twitched.

"She's trying to move. And she has a pulse." Said a soldier, who'd placed a finger on her neck.

"Not a robot then." Said Scott.

"I AM ABLE TO MOVE THE SUIT." It said.

"Right." Said Scott. "Close up the suit. We'll get you back to base and sort things out there. You're a Dalek leading us to patrol in the mountains. OK?"

"...OK." The suit replied.

 _Come on. It's not talking properly you fools._ She thought. But no one questioned it. The fake robomen assumed formation and marched ahead of her. Every Dalek they passed by, the suit would repeat their story to it and they'd be allowed to pass. This opperation had apparently been well planned, and might even have worked without it being a Dalek trick. It was ironic. She was being rescued at last, but she couldn't feel happy about it because this was about to get everyone killed.

Before long, they were clear of the Dalek perimeter. But the rebels kept in formation, just in case they ran into any patrols. _Come on!_ She thought. _Someone question me. Someone try to start a conversation. It can't impersonate me for sustained dialogue._ But still the party moved on in silence.

The rebels tended to keep to the narrow paths to avoid detection. As they passed under one particular rock, several figures slid down from above and grabbed the rearmost members of the party, placing a knife at their throats.

The rest of the party hurried away and took a position. "Let them go." Said Scot.

"I'm not doing that." Maddock's voice came from the rock. He had several more people with him, guns raised. "Drop your guns, or your friends die."

"Clara!" Scott shouted.

"Oh, haven't you heard? She's on our side now."

"DROP YOUR WEAPONS!" The suit shouted, advancing on them. The startled troops did so.

"Tie 'em up." Maddock ordered, then said to his captives. "No need to fret. The Daleks and I've worked out a deal that'll get them off this planet. It just means getting the rebels out the way. Now let's not make this more difficult by trying to stop us."

"NOW THEY HAVE SURRENDERED, WE SHOULD EXTERMINATE THEM!" Said the suit.

 _No._ Clara thought. _Calm yourself. Give it nothing to feed off. Please let this work._

Fortunately, Maddock had his own objections. "No! We need them as hostages." He selected the weediest looking member of Scott's group and hauled him to his feet. "You there. You know the password to get into your base. And you're going to give it to us."

"W-w-why?" Said the man.

"'cos we'll be leaving someone behind with your friends. If she doesn't get a signal from me. She'll kill them. Clear? Now come on!"

Maddock's party stole the jackets and masks worn by Scott's and took their place. Once more, Clara was following behind, making a renewed effort to regain control. _The signal must drop as we move away. Maybe it's weak enough._ But still nothing.

"Here we are." Said Maddock, as they reached a seemingly inconspicuous cave. "Now you know what you have to do?" He jabbed a knife into the captive's back to add an incentive and the man nodded nervously.

He led them down into the cave, before stopping by a particular rock and tapping a precise sequence on it.

"Enter." Said a voice. And they carried on. Round the corner, they found a sentry. "Where's Scott?"

"He… didn't make it." Said the man. "We got her though."

The sentry looked at Clara warily. So warily he didn't pay mush attention to the rest of the party. And since he was expecting Clara, he didn't have much reason to refuse her entry."Take it to the labs."

And so they passed on. The moment they were alone, Maddock put his hand on the captive's shoulder. "Thanks, you've been a great help." And he punched him unconscious. He got on the radio. "Emily? We're in. No need to kill the hostages." He then addressed the group. "This way. The labs are right next to the radio room."

They moved deeper into the base. A massively elaborate system of natural caverns the resistance had rapidly converted into a bunker. Even with her suit's ability to hover over rough ground, it still struggled quite often in the confined space. She could understand why the resistance would come here to hide.

Any time they passed a group, Maddock would explain they were going to the labs, and they'd let them pass, keeping an eye on Clara but not detecting any signs of hostility. And not paying the others much scrutiny.

Finally, they reached the appropriate room. Inside, banks of equipment lined the place. About ten people were running it.

Once more it was Clara, they looked at. "Why did you bring her in here?" Said a woman, then looked up to see the barrel of Maddock's gun. All around them, others had raised their guns to cover the people in the room. "Don't try anything, or I use the Dalek on you."

"What is this?"

"Change of plans, Mrs Jones. We're bringing you down. You've all stood against us for far too long. The Daleks have offered me a deal."

The suit advance right in the face of the smallest person there. "WHICH CONSOLE CONTROLS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS?" It boomed.

"That one." She said feebly, pointing.

The suit carried Clara towards it. She made one final effort to retake control. _This time. This time._ Still nothing.

There were no control knobs to place the sucker on, so the suit smashed through a part of the machine and interfaced with the systems directly. A massive shock travelled up the arm. It didn't affect her, since the suit acted as a Faraday cage, but she still felt it and would have screamed in pain if she could.

"CORDINATES TRANSMITTED." The suit announced. She'd failed then. The Daleks now knew just where to find all the resistance groups.

As the sparks faded, Clara became aware of the sound of gunfire. After a couple of rels, she realised that none of it was aimed at her. The suit looked around and saw that another group of people had appeared all around the room, while she'd been distracted. They were now in a fierce shoot out with Maddock's party. The suit raised the gun, ready to join in the fray.

 _No! Calm._ She thought. The gun faltered. It was working! But it was so hard to fight down the million and one emotions she was feeling. It resumed a rels later, by which time the people she was aiming at had dived for cover.

"Any time now!" Jones was shouting into her radio.

"Dalek!" Maddock called to her. The suit brought her round to his cover. "That barricade there, take 'em out!"

Instead, the suit began to aim at him. "Not me! I'm on your side!"

"YOU HAVE OUTLIVED YOUR USEFULLNESS." Said the suit.

"We had a deal!"

"THE DALEKS WILL NOT PERMIT ANYONE TO HAVE ACCESS TO DALEK TECHNOLOGY. YOU WOULD BECOME A THREAT TO US."

Maddock swore and reached for a bomb on his belt. But the suit was faster. Clara tried to blank her mind but there wasn't time. The suit shot him dead.

By now, the weapons fire had died down, but the suit was still trying to get at them. "Everyone out! It's not working!" Jones was shouting.

"Wait!" A man cam running into the room. "Try this!"

The suit swung round to aim at him, but Clara had recovered presence of mind and fought to clear it. She still couldn't blank out everything, but she at least could dull the weapon's effects. When it fired, it only lit up a small patch on his chest. He gasped but stayed upright.

The suit realised that Clara was fighting back, but it had one last trick. "ACTIVATING SELF DESTRUCT. 10, 9, 8…" So this was how it was going to end then? Splattered over a control room.

As it counted, the man recovered and leapt forward to place something on Clara's dome.

"No, please no!" Clara found herself shouting, then realised she could speak again. "Cancel self destruct!" And the countdown stopped.

She could move again, and looked around at a room full of people who were holding their weapons warily. "Wait. I am fine now!"

"Yeah." The man said. "I've put a jammer on you. It's stopped the signals from their remote control."

"Yes, but can you control the suit, Trix?" Jones said to him.

"I'm not sure." Said Trix. "I'll need to try again."

At this point, Journey entered the room. "Clara, are you alight? How long 'till you can open up?"

"About ten minutes." Clara counted, then noticed who Journey had brought in with her. "It is Sarah! She is a spy! She is a spy!"

"No wait!" Said Journey. "She's the one who told us their plans."

"Yeah. I'm actually a triple agent." Said Sarah. "I'm sorry I had to put you through all that, but it had to look convincing."

"What is going on?" Said Clara.

"Ok, let me explain. When you first came to me, I thought the Daleks were trying to trick me. We were trying to get rid of Maddock for ages, so I fed him info about you in hope of getting him caught in the Dalek's trap. But the Clarkes wanted to meet with you anyway. Maddock still found you and ended up bringing the Daleks to you.

But you got us thinking about how we could use this to lead both Maddock and the Daleks into a trap. Trouble was, the Daleks were planing to just dispose of you. I had to tell them we were coming to the rescue because it was the only way to make you valuable enough to keep alive. And it worked. So well, the Daleks basically sent you an Maddock to us.

Talk of Maddock brought Clara's attention to him. "It feels like I killed him."

Journey interceded. "OK, one, you weren't in control, two, you looked like you were battling for control, that saved all our lives, three, no one's really going to miss him."

"But it has not saved you." Said Clara. "The Daleks will know where you are now."

Trix, who'd been debating with Jones joined in. "Oh no, this console is just a dummy. It's fed the Daleks coordinates that'll lead them into ambush's all over the planet. This is the only actual base it'll lead them to. And while they're distracted, we'll remotely operate the suit into their flagship and use it to plant a data cluster we've modified, with a set of orders that'll take them off the planet for good."

"At least that's the plan. But your bloody remote doesn't work!" Jones scowled.

"I said it needed more testing." Trix said awkwardly. "Just let me work on it a bit more."

"We don't have time!" Jones snapped. "The Daleks'll be here in an hour. We won't get another chance like this. Do you realise how rarely their flagship actually lands somewhere?"

"So you have a plan to stop the Daleks, but you need the suit to do it?" Said Clara.

"Yes, but we've got no means to."

"Yes you do. Because you have got me. I can deliver your cluster to the ship. And get out while they are distracted."

"Clara, we can't ask you to do this." Said Journey.

"I have to." Said Clara. "It is the only way I can be at peace with everything I saw them do. So, what do you need me to do?"


	11. Death Or Glory

**Chapter 11: Death Or Glory**

As soon as Clara could open her suit, the resistance had hurriedly replaced her own data cluster with theirs, along with a few other quick tweaks. They'd also concealed their jammer under her base so the Daleks and the antibodies in the suit wouldn't recognise it. They'd apparently been plotting this for a while. Her arrival and the interest of the Dalek flagship had forced them to accelerate things. They offered to take her out while they were tinkering, but Clara refused. Not only was she not sure if she could just turn the system off and on again like that, she also didn't think she'd be able to bear getting a taste of freedom, only to shut herself in once more.

They were now leading her out to a cave on the other side of the mountain, rapidly briefing her on the details. "So you're clear on what the signal is?" Jones was saying.

"Yes."

Jones showed her a map. "Once you're done. Head for this point here. It's out of the way, just take cover somewhere and we'll send an extraction team to meet you once everything's calmed down."

"Sir." Her radio squarked. "Three Dalek saucers converging on this position. Thousands of loose Daleks on their way too."

"I need to sort out the defence." Said Jones. "Good luck."

"You too."

The Dalek ships hovered above them, but didn't attack straight away. Clara knew they would be analysing whether they could just level the mountain range. Several Daleks spilled out of the ships and began circling the area, trying to get the lie of the land as fast as possible.

This was her best chance. She spotted a gap and elevated up into it. She then circled with the Daleks for a minute, before peeling off and disappearing behind a peak. Several more scouting parties were peeling off to search further afield. To the unsuspecting eyestalk, she'd look like one of them. She assumed the flagship hadn't moved since she'd left and headed to where it had been.

* * *

After a time, the Daleks had apparently concluded that the base wasn't worth bombing and formed ranks in the air, ready to shoot any rebel who caught themselves in the open. They couldn't know the full extent of the caves and there was too good a chance the rebels would find a way to escape if they tried bombing them, instead, they formed positions to cover every entrance. A small number of people tried to desert at this point, and were taken out before they'd run a hundred metres.

Finally, an assault force began to descend. Jones was watching it through the survailance cameras, while instructing the troops via com link. "Ok. We'll evacuate if we have to but we need to give Clara as much time as possible. Aim for the eyestalks. Try to get them when they're negotiating the terrain. Remember we have a limited number of bombs so use them carefully. Don't hold a position longer than you have to. Try to make a fighting retreat."

Captain Welsh was in charge of the barricade before the main entrance. A large group of rebels would be making a stand here, before they'd fight them ever step of the way through the caves. "But why don't we just blow the entrances?" A soldier said.

"And bury ourselves alive?" She replied.

"They're coming!" Someone shouted.

A loose formation of Daleks was making its way down the cave. The uneven walls and floor made standard formations difficult for them to follow.

"Wait for it." Welsh called, waiting for the Daleks to come closer. "Open fire!"

Journey moved up to her position and sighted one of the Daleks. She fired and knocked out one of its ear lights, missing the eyestalk, then ducked down as the Dalek returned fire, the rocks absorbing its shot.

All around her, dozens of other rebels had risen and hit the Daleks with a volley, smashing several of the stalks. The incapacitated Daleks would block the way for those coming up, who'd blow them to pieces to clear the way.

The Daleks returned fire almost as quickly. Any time a rebel missed one, they'd get a fix on the position, forcing them to keep down until a friend took it out, or drew it to their position. The Daleks would also fire random shots into the cave walls and roof to shower the rebels with stones and force them to duck down in fear of a rockfall.

"Remember New New Dehli!" Welsh shouted to keep them firing. But she could see that it was futile. Where one Dalek fell, another would take its place in seconds. And they were pressing ever closer. "Bombs!" She shouted.

The defenders each flung a dal bomb at the mass of Daleks mere feet from their front line. They were all blasted open. That would buy them time, but not enough. "Now!" She shouted into her radio.

Along the edges of the cave ran a narrow passageway. Their miners had spent more than two weeks cutting out a series of firing holes and disguising them to look like the rock face. Now, as one, they smashed their way through the cover and filled the cave with blanket fire. By the end, barely a Dalek was left with a functioning eyestalk.

Behind the incapacitated Daleks, they could hear the next wave beginning to smash its way through. "That was only the forlorn hope." Said Welsh. "Fall back."

* * *

Clara approached the ship. It was much quieter than it had been before. The vast majority of Daleks had spilled out to join the attack on the Northern Group's headquarters. Only a few remained behind, watching the perimeter for any rebels who might want to take the place. They never suspected their attackers might be in Dalek form.

Every time she'd entered one of these ships it was because she was coerced in some way. She'd never dreamed she'd volunteer to go back.

She landed on the moor and approached the ramp. A single Dalek was standing sentry duty.

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" It demanded. "YOU SHOULD MAN THE PERIMITER."

Clara felt a jolt from the probes, and the screaming sound, but no directions were uploaded into her head. The new cluster didn't contain the information. This meant she'd have no hope of blending in should something go wrong. But that was fine. One way or another, she was ending this today. And she wouldn't be their servant any longer. "I have been ordered to report to the Supreme in person." Clara said. "The group I came from is experiencing communication difficulties."

She waited with baited breath. If this Dalek questioned her, it was all over. "PROCED." It said at last.

* * *

In her office, the puppet president was in video link talk with the Supreme Dalek. "My troops are where we agreed. If the rebels try to escape, they are under orders to shoot them." Fortunately, the Daleks didn't trust them enough to send them into battle against other humans. Their orders here were just to maintain a perimeter around the battlefields. But it seemed the Daleks were encountering heavier resistance than expected.

"YOU WILL MOVE YOUR LINES FURTHUR IN. THE REBELS WILL BELIEVE IT IS SAFER TO SURRENDER TO YOU. IF THEY REFUSE, THEY ARE TO BE SHOT ON SIGHT." Said the Supreme. "THIS IS AN ORDER."

And with that, the link faded. Clearly the discussion was over.

Summers turned to her vice president. "The Daleks suspect you've been in contact with the resistance. I had to hide some evidence that you were. False of course. But hypotheticaly, if you were secretly in contact with the resistance… What would they say to you?"

He thought for a moment. "Hypothetically… They might be planning a counter attack. One which aimed to take the Daleks apart from within."

"So… presumably, you'd be left to wait for a signal to stop me interfering? What form might that signal take?"

"Well, in these circumstances, I'd withhold that information, as there'd be no certainty whether you were asking because you wanted to help, or because, hypothetically, a part of the plan could involve your assassination and you want to avoid it."  
"That would be fair. This is all theory of course. And I suppose, unless this hypothetical plan actualy does carry out, we'll never find out whose side either of us is on."

* * *

The rebels knew the tunnels much better than the Daleks and had used their labyrinthine nature to loop round and make a string of surprise attacks, whilst also leading them into traps and holding their advance at difficult passageways. But still they were being pushed back. The narrow passages also made it difficult to concentrate fire on the Daleks, and they were getting good at methodical sweeps, keeping every side passage covered in case of ambush. Plus, every trap would work only once.

Journey was busy holding a barricade at the top of a steeply sloping tunnel, picking off Daleks as they tried to bring themselves close enough to storm the barricade. After losing three this way though, the Daleks seemed to back off.

The commander had been killed by this time, leaving her in de facto control. "They wouldn't just give up." She said. "There's no way they can flank us. They're planning something."

"What is that?" A soldier pointed. Just before the tunnel turned away, was a Dalek that looked flatter than the rest. It had no sucker arm, just a single massive gun. It was keeping still positioning itself.

"Special weapons Dalek! Run!" She shouted.

The group fled deeper into the passageway, seconds later, the special weapons Dalek blasted their barricade to dust.

The tunnel was a dead end. But they'd led the Daleks this way deliberately. There was a smaller passageway in the wall, which they could just about squeeze through but would be imposable for a Dalek. The group rapidly fled into it.

Journey was the second to last to go. The soldier behind her squeezed in and paused near the entrance. "Now?"

"No." She said. "Let them get closer."

He peered round the edge of the rock and waited. "They're coming. They're almost on top of us."

"Detonate."

The soldier hit a button, remotely setting off some carefully concealed explosives in the tunnel behind the Daleks. Effectively trapping them inside. Even the special weapons Dalek couldn't blast its way out.

They crawled away into the passage. "This way to the barracks." The person at the front said.

"Oh no, we can't! I've just heard on the radio. The Daleks have overrun them."

"Take the tunnel on the left then. I think that way's clear."

"Come on Clara." Journey muttered. "Hurry up."

* * *

Clara had found the corridors on the Flagship much harder to navigate than others. While she'd spent two weeks living here, she'd always had the routes imprinted on her brain, and all the corridors looked the same. Nonetheless, she'd found her way eventually.

Clara found the bridge entrance and felt around for Daleks. But they were all at stations. The only ones nearby were those running the bridge. She just had to make sure no more turned up. There were two corridors leading off from there. She shut and locked the bulkhead on both, then went and opened the door.

She entered and activated a device the resistance had installed, releasing two devices, disguised as sense globes, to roll across the room. She then withdrew behind the wall and waited.

Before the invasion, some scientists had built a prototype for a very special device for taking out the Daleks. Now they were dead and there were never going to be more. But the resistance had captured the prototype. The bomb went off, releasing a specialised electromagnetic charge designed to reverse the polarity on the magnetic locks that held the Dalek casings closed. Once they'd come open. The second globe detonated, releasing a gas into the room to poison them.

Clara waited a few moments for the ship's filtration system to clear the air, then moved into the room. As she'd hoped, all the bridge crew were wide open and stationary.

The only one unaffected seemed to be the Dalek Supreme. Knowing she could never talk her way out of this, Clara quickly fired at it. But her shot dissipated short of it.

"Exterminate!" She shouted, with as much anger as she could muster. She fired again, but still nothing.

"THIS STATION IS SHIELDED AGAINST ATTACK." It said.

"Yeah? Well, you will have to lower it to get at me!" She replied

"YOU ARE THE DOCTOR'S ASSOSIATE. YOU WILL BE CONTROLED."

"I broke free. You cannot control me any more!" She fired into the floor near the shield, hoping to hit some system that powered it.

"INCORECT. WE CANNOT ACCESS THE MACHINE, BUT WE CAN STIL CONNECT TO THE DATA CLUSTER. THROUGH IT, YOUR MIND."

Clara suddenly felt a pressure from the probes, greater than any she'd felt before, and she gasped in pain and horror.

"YOUR MIND WILL BE PURGED AND YOU WILL SUBMIT TO US." The Supreme said.

"No. No. No!" She gaped as everything went dark.

* * *

 **Author's Notes: The next chapter may be delayed by a couple of days due to holiday. Be assured, I don't plan to leave her here.**


	12. The Sprite

**Chapter 12: The Sprite**

"No!" Clara reached out, and was surprised to find a hand grabbing hers. She looked round and saw her own arm. She could see! She could move! In fact, she didn't seem to be in her casing at all. But how? Whatever it was was either really good or really bad.

She looked at the owner of the hand that had grabbed hers and was startled once more to see her own face looking down at her.

"Ah, you're awake." Said the other her. You're just in time. I think I've finally got this soufflé just right." She left Clara's side and moved over to a pair of stoves by the wall. She looked in and frowned. "Maybe fried eggs instead then? I'm Oswin by the way."

Clara looked around at her surroundings. She was lying on a sofa in a small, metallic room, littered with objects that made it look as though this Oswin had been in here for some time. Vivaldi was playing from a record player in the corner, but it didn't seem to cover the loud thump that echoed through the hatchway.

She looked back at the other her, and babbled for a few moments as several questions battled for control of the vocal chords. "Where am I?" She said at last.

"OK, brace yourself. Because you're actually in the Daleks' collective mind. Your subconscious has translated your struggle against it into a, sort of, dream sequence."

"And… you're some part of my subconscious?"

"Oh no. I'm actually here. See, I'm a past version of you that the Daleks tried to take me over too. It turns out destroying a Dalek's physical form doesn't delete it from the hive. Most of them don't notice 'cos they're all so alike anyway. But not us. We can hide out in here, and I've been living as a sprite for.. I'm not sure how long. You see there's this technique people use to battle brainwashing where you imagine yourself in a secure room, surrounded by things that are important to you. Music, baking stuff, pictures of Nina. And the people trying to take you over are outside and can't get in. One of the echoes that came before me imagined this place up, and it got carried over to the next, each adding a little to it. So this is one of the world's toughest mindscapes."

Another thump echoed through. But Clara had a more immediate question. "Wait, how do you know about the echoes?"

"Well, I've been shielding you from the Daleks since you plugged yourself in. In that time, I've been talking to your actual subconscious." Oswin pointed at another version of her, this one in Victorian dress.

"We're all still in 'ere. Even if yer not payin' attention." Said the Victorian her.

"It's been nice having company round here at last." Oswin smiled.

"But how did she…" Clara pointed and found her third self gone. "Right, mindscape."

Another thump came from the hatch. "What's that sound?" Said Clara.

"Oh, that's the Daleks breaking in. Nothing keeps them out forever. They just weren't that interested, up 'till now."

"Can't we just imagine up a big bomb or something?"

Oswin shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. Not sure how it works, but not like that. There's one thing we could do though."

"What's that?"

"Open up the door. The Supreme's leading the charge and it won't be expecting two of us."

Oswin briefly explained her plan and got Clara to agree to it. The two of them looked to the question of weapons.

"So we have to fight them with something in here?" Clara said, looking around but finding little of use. "Why did you conjure all these eggs, but not something weapony?"

Oswin shrugged. "I like eggs. You'd've done the same in my place. Come to think of it, you did."

Clara had a look at the stoves. "These are gas ovens. Where's the gas coming from?"

"You know, I never thought about that."

"You just did." Clara pulled one of the ovens forward. Sure enough, they weren't connected to anything. "They must be spontaneously generating it. That's something useful."

* * *

Jones was plotting the Dalek advance on her map of the tunnels. The defences were collapsing fast now. The key thing was that they had to keep their line of retreat open. There was a passage they'd discovered that led to an underground river. It wasn't on any maps and they never used that route usually, so it was unlikely they would block them off. The only concern was keeping a line of retreat within the base.

"Daleks moving down tunnel 4!" Someone shouted on her radio, this was followed by a lot of screams.

Jones looked at her map. Seizing tunnel 4 would put the Daleks in command of a key junction, that would cut off their retreat. "Blow the tunnel, quickly!" She shouted, but was met by silence.

Another voice came on the radio from the next position along. "This is Lt Smith. They've got behind us! We're trapped! Wait, something's coming..."

* * *

Smith watched as a series of blasts erupted from the rear of the Dalek positions. Someone was coming from the emergency tunnel and hitting the Daleks from behind.

"Grab your bombs and charge!" She shouted at her own troops. The two parties together blasted their way through the Daleks and re-took the junction. Seeing another wave coming, Smith quickly hit the detonator to bring the tunnel down.

She looked at their rescuers. "Captain Hammond. Weatley Liberation Front." When they all pointed their guns at him, he added. "Look, we're not all like Maddock. When we heard you were having a crack at the Daleks, a lot of us broke off to join in."

"Thank you." Said Smith, and got on her radio. "We've retaken the entrance, but there's only one tunnel left now."

"I'll signal the evacuation." Said Jones.

* * *

Clara and her echo had hastily moved the two stoves to positions on either side of the hatch, as well as building a barricade of furniture deeper into the room. Now, they turned on the gas in the ovens and waited for it to build for a moment.

Clara looked at the hatch, which was starting to vibrate under the Dalek assault. "You realise, of course, they'll still get in, even if this works."

Oswin nodded. "Oh yes. But that's fine. They'll purge me from the mind, and then I'll just become the next echo and so on until I become you. Then I'll escape. Thanks by the way. You've given me a way out."

"And so have you. Thank you." She then snorted. "I must sound vain. Standing here congratulating myself."

By now, the gas had probably built up to a good level. "Ready?"

"Yes."

They turned on the gas on the hobs too. Hopefully, they'd be done before they chocked to death. They then flattened themselves against the wall. Oswin hit two buttons to open the hatch and place a force shield in its place.

The Daleks paused for a minute, then fired some shots at the shield. "IT IS RESISTANT TO WEAPONS FIRE. BUT WE CAN STILL PENETRATE. ADVANCE."

The two Oswalds held their breath as the Supreme led the advance into her space. Clara waited for it to clear the hatch and shouted "Now!"

Oswin hit the button to slam the hatch shut once more. The Supreme, meanwhile had spun Clara's way. An opportunity she used to jam Oswin's ruined soufflé over the eyestalk. The two of them then fled and leapt over the barricade.

The Dalek shouted for assistance and tried to back away, but didn't fire its weapon. It would be able to detect the propane in the air. Fortunately, Clara had devised a means of dealing with that. She had a large ball of tissue and some matches, which she lit and flung at it, before they ducked down and put their fingers in their ears.

The propane ignited. The blast was relatively light where they were but the Dalek was surrounded by a fierce fireball, which detonated the ovens too, smashing shards of metal into it.

They waited a moment for the flames to die down, then grabbed some tools and charged. A simple propane explosion would never be enough to take out a Dalek, but it had weakened the armour a bit. More importantly, it had knocked out the gun.

However as they charged, they encountered two problems. Firstly, the blast had cleared the soufflé and pot from the eyestalk. Secondly, the sucker was still working, and shot out to catch Clara in the stomach, before shoving her inexorably backwards. "YOU WILL SUBMIT YOU WILL SUBMIT."

Clara stumbled against something behind her and grabbed on to the edges to stop herself falling. She realised now that it was an open casing. And the Dalek was forcing her into it.

"NO!" Shouted Oswin. She brought down a steel bar on the arm, as hard as she could, dislodging it from Clara. The two of them then dodged around the arm and grabbed onto the Dalek (using thick gloves to avoid burning their hands,) which they shoved into a corner.

Oswin jammed a wedge into a crack the explosion had put in its armour and the two of them began hammering away. Clara punctuated her whacks with shouts. "I! Will! Not! Submit! I! Will! Not! Obey! I! Will! Never! Be! A! Dalek!"

Finally, they'd opened up a gap, large enough to fit an arm through. Through which, they could see the Dalek mutant.

The rest of the Daleks, meanwhile, had resumed their assault. The hatch was starting to look hot.

"KILLING ME WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO ESCAPE." Said the Supreme.

"Who said anything about killing you?" Oswin grinned. "I need you alive. This mind link is a two way thing." She pulled the neural probes from the mutant and plugged them into her own head. "Attention all Daleks." Her words echoed from the Supreme's suit. "You are ordered to release Clara Oswald from the hive. Make no further attempts to condition her."

"Thank you." Clara said, as the room dissolved around her.

 **Author's notes: The cannon never makes it clear whether the echoes are a single consciousness moving from person to person, or a lot of different people who are offshoots of Clara. I'm assuming the former for this story.**


	13. The Pursuit

**Chapter 13: The Pursuit:**

Clara never thought she'd be so pleased to be back in her Dalek suit. Now, she was safe from their mindwashing.

She looked up at the Dalek supreme, hoping the other part of the plan had worked. Sure enough, the now Oswin-possessed, Dalek turned to her and said. "CREATE THE DISTRACTION THEN."

Clara had updated her on the details of the plan. With her now controlling the Supreme, the data cluster was no longer needed. But she still had a part to play. She found the apropriate console, shoved its former operator aside and placed her sucker on it. "Attention all robomen, attack the Daleks. This order cannot be countermanded."

Most of the robomen would die fighting, but for their last minutes, they'd be more alive than they'd been in ages. At any rate, this was only supposed to create a diversion and stop anyone noticing the set of orders Oswin gave next. "ACTIVATING FLEET WIDE SELF DESTRUCT. THERE ARE TO BE NO WARNINGS. TIMER SET FOR NINE THOUSAND RELS." She then moved to a different control. "ATTENTION ALL DALEKS. RESISTANCE IS NO LONGER TO BE TOLERATED. RETURN TO SHIPS AND RETURN TO ORBIT. ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT SET TO BEGIN IN TEN THOUSAND RELS. RELEASE ALL PRISONERS ONTO THE PLANET. THEY WILL PERRISH IN THE BOMBARDMENT." She then turned to Clara. "YOU HAD BETTER GET MOVING."

"Come with me." Said Clara.

"I HAVE TO DESTROY THIS MACHINE BEFORE THE DALEKS RETAKE CONTROL. I WILL ACTIVATE SELF DESTRUCT WHEN YOU HAVE GONE. NOW RUN!"

"Thank you." Clara said one more time and left. As she glided her way through the corridors, she heard a small blast as her echo destroyed herself. Remembering that Oswin was counting on her to survive, she hurried onwards.

* * *

"Madame President." Said a voice on her intercom. "We're getting reports that the robomen have turned on the Daleks."

The vice president pulled out his gun. "That's the signal. Now please move aside."

She thought for a moment. "There's no need for that. I'm perfectly happy to help." She pressed some buttons. "Attention all commands, this is President Summers. Execute special order 267. Repeat 267." Pretending she'd forgotten to end the transmission, she asked him. "So are you going to shoot me then?"

He just fumed at her.

* * *

Jones had worked her way to the front of the resistance so she could lead them through the evacuation tunnel. At the end was a huge mass of undergrowth they'd left undisturbed in the hope that the Dalek patrols wouldn't notice. She peeled some of it back and had a look out. Outside, hundreds of collaborators were covering the entrance.

She turned back to the others. "They found us."

"What? But they weren't here earlier." Said Hammond.

"Must've moved into position after you got here." She sighed, and looked back at the exhausted rebels following along. Well, all we can do is try to punch through.

They quickly moved up into positions, hoping they might still have the element of surprise. But even as they moved, they saw the colaborators abruptly abandon their positions and move away. What was going on?

It seemed someone in their ranks noticed the rebels, because they sent someone over with a flag of truce. "We've received orders from the President." She said excitedly. "We're going to attack the Daleks!"

This was met by cheers from the rebel ranks. "She actually did it." Journey grinned.

Jones issued directions. "Journey, assemble a team and move to the extraction point. The rest of you, fall in behind me. Let's drive them all the way back to their ships!"

* * *

Clara, meanwhile, was realising a flaw in the roboman distraction. There were several hundred robomen on the flagship and not that many Daleks. She'd only covered a couple of corridors before she ran into a column of them, who promptly opened fire. Maybe she should have added "except me" to her order?

Fortunately for her, the Daleks hadn't been stupid enough to give the robomen guns that could penetrate their armour. Unfortunately, the robomen also seemed to have realised this, and charged forward to attack Clara with their bare hands, perhaps planning to push her somewhere dangerous. She didn't wait to find out, she just turned and ran.

She tried a different corridor, in which a smaller crowd of robomen had found some tools and were attempting to pry a Dalek's armour apart. Clara shot past them while they were still distracted and made for what she hoped was the exit. Still the robomen kept coming. She stunned a few but the stun setting was hard to use and she didn't think she could take on the lot.

However, as she fled down one corridor, the air suddenly became filled with death rays, as the first group of Daleks back to the ship shot the robomen.

Clara moved along the side of the corridor, going in the opposite direction to the flow, until she found the main ramp. She watched the continuous stream of Daleks coming up and wondered if she'd have time to wait for them to pass. Ultimately, she decided she'd need to go now in hope of getting lost in the crowd. "I need to check a system outside. Make space." She ordered. Sure enough, the stream shifted slightly to allow her a gap.

Clara looked at the Daleks hovering overhead, providing air cover, and decided to stay on the ground for now. She weaved her way between the streams of Daleks moving in, dodging through gaps where needed. No one was questioning her… yet.

But she knew getting through the perimeter would be difficult. Before her was the innermost of a series of circles the Daleks had rapidly formed to cover their withdrawal. Less than a mile away, she could here the sounds of battle as the humans fought to keep the pressure up.

She wouldn't be heading that way. Instead, she'd be heading to a part of the mountains which was to far out of the way for both sides. The Daleks had set up a position covering the entrance to the mountain pass she was aiming for. They took immediate note of a Dalek apparently going the wrong way "HALT."

"Some rebels have been spotted moving this way." She said. "I have been ordered to investigate."

"WE WILL HOLD POSITION. THEY WILL BE DESTROYED BY THE ORBITAL BOMBARDMENT."

"They may be planning to take the ship."

"THEY WILL NOT HAVE TIME. WE WILL BE IN ORBIT SOON. RETURN TO THE SHIP."

Clara thought hard of any way to talk her way out of this, but could find none. Fortunately, at this point, the position came under fire as a squad of robomen emerged from the pass. The Daleks quickly began to return fire.

"Charge!" Clara shouted and sped forward, before abruptly elevating over the robomen and moving rapidly into the mountains. The Daleks called for her to return, but soon realised she wasn't going to. Fortunately, by then, she'd dodged round a rock face out of sight.

Nonetheless, she felt a Dalek presence following her. It couldn't be more than 5 of them, but it was a problem. If she could feel them, they could feel her and there was no chance of hiding from them or losing them.

She fled onwards blindly, keeping to passageways as deep and narrow and windy as she could. Her pursuers were also sending units up in the air to get at her. She had to try and not give them enough time to aim properly.

After a time, she began to feel a presence ahead. It must be one of the few Dalek patrols in this sector heading back to the ship. For a moment, she thought about how to avoid it. Then an idea struck her and she ran directly to it.

As soon as these Daleks came into view, she shouted at them. "Quickly, there is some rogue Daleks back there, trying to get away. Shoot it!"

The Daleks took her at her word and blasted one of her perusers out if the air. They returned fire and confused fire fight erupted behind her. She used the distraction to put as much distance between her and them as possible. She could still feel one or two of the Daleks chasing her, but they weren't so close now.

What she hadn't realised was that she'd got so lost in the mountains that she'd strayed towards the edge of the main battle lines. As she rounded a bend, she came face to face with some human troops. "Dalek to your front. Fire!"

"No wait!" She shouted, skidding to a halt, but too late. A soldier with a heavy gun blasted at her. Fortunately, he'd not been expecting her to skid to a halt and the shot passed across her bows before slamming into the rock wall beside her. Unfortunately, this was still close enough for her to get hit by the blast wave. It knocked a huge dent in the right hand side of her armour and sent her tumbling over to crash into the rocks on her left.

Her inertia compensators kept running just long enough to cushion her fall, but she still instinctively held out a hand to brace herself. In the few rels after the hit, she realised that her left hand was directly under her face. It was no longer restrained! She reached up and felt a broken cable trailing down the right hand side of her head. The explosion must have damaged it.

She grabbed the other probe and pulled it free. The view from her eyestalk finally vanished, to be replaced with a bronze coloured blur. She hadn't used her eyes in seven weeks and they were having trouble focusing.

She pulled out all the other systems that had attached themselves to her, before feeling around for a loose clamp. She quickly found some that the explosion had damaged and pushed the panel open. Once one had gone, the rest were relatively simple to unravel. She grabbed the edges and pulled herself out.

All around her, a fire fight was taking place. Fortunately, both sides were ignoring her since she'd apparently been destroyed.

As she'd feared, her legs wouldn't respond. Instead, she grabbed the edge of the rock she was lying on and pulled herself over, landing in a heap on the ground, now covered from the Dalek fire.

"There's someone down there!" A soldier shouted. "Grant, with me." A blur with a human outline appeared above her. "Can you walk?" She said

"No." Clara tried to say, but it all came out as a whisper. She shook her head instead.

"Grant, get her on your back and get her out of here."

Grant picked her up in a fireman's carry. As he did so, she began to hear a rumble above her.

"They're trying to bring down the rocks!" Someone shouted. "Move!"

Grant ran harder. From her position, Clara could make out shapes and outlines around her. She saw a bronze shape that was her casing lying on the floor, and watched as a huge grey shape descended on it. She watched as the casing, that had been her prison for the past 7 weeks, was smashed to pieces.

* * *

The troops had lain Clara on a stretcher, but left her where she was for the time being since there was nothing immediately wrong with her. As she lay, she heard the distant rumble as the ships all began to take off.

People around her cheered, but Clara was waiting with baited breath. If the Daleks had discovered the self destruct, she and Oswin had just condemned the planet to death. Although even that seemed preferable to a slow death under Dalek rule.

Her vision was slowly clearing as she lay watching the sky. Finally, she saw a series of points light up bright orange, before quickly fading. She lay back grinning in relief. The Daleks were gone.


	14. The Return

**Chapter 14: The Return**

Almost as soon as the Daleks were gone, the humans had reclaimed whatever hospital buildings had stayed standing, along with their medical supplies. Clara had spent a couple of days in one, before discharging herself when they determined there was nothing physically wrong with her. Her body had just forgotten how to use some of its systems while they'd been idle.

By this time, she'd located Journey, who'd located her ship and given Clara a bunk in it while she tried to source some key components the Daleks had stripped.

Outside, the people of the planet were in the process of rebuilding, moving back into the ruins of their cities, salvaging what they could and locating the more intact structures to patch up and turn into proper homes again.

Both Clara and the planet had a lot of recovering to do, but both were in high spirits. They were free in a way that had seemed impossible only a few days ago.

Today marked one week since the liberation. Already, Clara's voice and vision had returned and her legs had progressed to the point where she could walk on crutches. Sleep was another thing her body was learning to do again. It had come fitfully at first and she'd barely managed two hours for a couple of nights. In her sleep deprived state, she'd found herself instinctively trying to zoom in on things she saw, or climb a staircase by shouting elevate. But it was fading. Every night the sleep was getting more even. And every day she was putting less and less weight on the crutches.

"OK. Try it now." Said Journey.

Clara was leaning against a counter, propping herself up with her hands. She let go and waved her arms to stay balanced upright. Now came the tricky part. She placed all her weight on one foot and moved the other forward, looking very much like a child taking its first steps. She laughed in delight when she managed to set it down without falling.

Next, she placed all her weight on the other foot, but found the muscles there lacked the same coordination and immediately gave way, sending her to the floor. "Well, getting there. Maybe I'll manage two steps once I've had something to eat."

The food was very basic. Partially because it was in short supply, mostly because her shrunken stomach couldn't take anything richer right now. Basic stock, with some nutri blocks ground into it. But sweet nectar to a woman who'd eaten nothing for seven weeks. In Clara's mind, she wondered whether she'd ever feel unhappy with anything ever again.

"So how're repairs going?" She asked Journey.

"Well, they're nearly done. Plus, I got a new message today. Says to return to the Federation fleet. They'll be moving back in soon, to make sure the Daleks don't try again. I'll probably be deployed with them."

"Congratulations." Said Clara. "I suppose you'll be leaving me behind?"

"Well, you'd be welcome to join us. I'd've thought you'd want to stay away from the Daleks now?"

"No. Staying in the action is the best way to find the TARDIS. Would be fine if I could just get this vortex manipulator working." She tapped some buttons. She'd tried the same in the Dalek suit but hadn't known the first thing about fixing it. "Anyway. I want to keep making a difference, even if it's dangerous. The moment I stop, I may as well be back in that Dalek ship, sitting and watching them destroy…" She winced at the memories, before shaking them off and cheerily helping herself to more soup.

Journey recognised what Clara was going through. She'd seen hardened veterans reduced to jibering wrecks with just a few days contact with the Daleks. Clara had been through a lot more. Of course, she'd convinced some councillors she knew to talk to her, but she wasn't sure what the long term effects would be. "Do you have any sort of therapist you can talk to in your time? People go insane with just a few days around those things."

"Oh, UNIT have some who specialise in this sort of thing. But I'm fine. A million more rels and everything'll be back to normal."

"What did you say?"

"A million rels… ten days. Maybe I should talk to someone after all…

"Excuse me." A tech knocked on the door. "There's a reporter, wants to talk to you."

Clara had been getting visitors like this all week. Even the President had come to convey her thanks, while hiding behind a wall of bodyguards. The people were not happy that she'd promised to use her position to protect them, but done nothing to actually stop the Daleks until held at gunpoint. She was unlikely to be re elected.

"Look." She said. "I've been through the story with a lot of people already. You can look it all up." They were all treating her like she'd brought down the Daleks single handed. Not only did she want to just move on, she hated hero worship just as much as the Doctor. But she didn't have a TARDIS to escape into.

"Oh no, I'm not here for that. I just wanted to get to know Clara the person. About where you're from. What sort of things you like." She said.

Clara thought for a moment. Actually, talking about home seemed appealing. And it might dull some of the awe people had attached to her. "Alright. 5 minutes." She chatted to her for a while, as much as she could tell.

"This'll be quite useful." The reporter said when they were done. "I'm planning to write a definitive account of the war you see. You'll be remembered in history."

"Oh don't thank me." She sighed. "It took a lot of people to bring down the Daleks." But then she had a thought. "Actually, when you get round to writing the history books, could you make sure they mention that I'm a companion of the Doctor. And also give the exact time and location of where I'm sitting right now?"

She looked confused. "Is there some reason?"

"You'll see in a second." Said Clara.

But instead of the roar of the TARDIS engines she'd hoped for, a sudden burst of sparks filled the air, and a strange looking woman appeared in the room.

One look at her and Clara immediately lunged forward and snatched Journey's side arm off her.

"Oh let's not start that again." Said Missy. "We both know you've not got it in you."

"Perhaps. But I don't have to kill you. I'd just like to see what your next regeneration looks like."

"What? Don't you think I'm pretty now? I might expect more gratitude for saving the Doctor's life. And his soul. I read ahead in the history books. You had to come here. I knew it'd destroy him if he had to put you through this. So you see, I did it for him."

"I don't believe you. You're just making this up as you go along. You tried to make a deal with the Daleks, twice. Not to mention, you kept using me as bait."

"Well, I reasoned you'd be willing to lay down your life for the Doctor. So it makes sense that I should lay down your life for the Doctor. Now do you want a lift or not? Can't be worse than a lift from the Daleks."

"I don't know." Said Clara. "At least I know where they're coming from. You… You change depending on which way the wind's blowing."

Missy licked her finger and pointed up. "Well, it's blowing east now so I guess that means I'm on the right side. Come on." Before Clara had time to react, Missy pressed a button and the world lit up blue.

When the light faded, Clara found herself back in the main chamber on Scaro, but the Time Lady was nowhere to be seen. She must have remotely operated the manipulator on her wrist. She pulled the thing off to stop any further trickery.

But she was surrounded by Daleks. They turned their guns on her, but didn't fire.

"Clara!" The Doctor was calling, from just round the corner.

"Look Doctor, just accept she's gone." Said Missy's voice.

"No. I'm not going 'till I find her."

"Alight. If I can bring her, or her body, to you ten seconds ago. Then will you just save your stupid neck?" Said Missy and promptly zapped from the place.

"Doctor!" She called.

He hurried in and cried in delight as he saw her sprawled there.

"SAVE THE DALEKS OR YOUR ASSOSCIATE DIES." Shouted the Dalek Supreme.

"Yeah, that's not gonna work." He said, pulling on his shades.

The Daleks fired, but the shots dissipated short of her. The Doctor pressed a button on the shades and the TARDIS control room rapidly formed around her. A second later, he raced through the doors. "Sonic shades." He explained. "See, the TARDIS was never destroyed, just rearranged. I've now put it back together. And why are you still on the floor?"

Clara thought for a moment. She really didn't want to talk about everything right now. Not to mention, the Doctor might take it as sign to never bring her on dangerous adventures again, which was not something she wanted. No matter what she went through, seeing the wonders of the universe and doing some good for them more than made up for the dangers.

"Missy tried to use me as a shield." She said. "A Dalek immobilised me, but I fell on that spot on the floor, so they couldn't get me.

The Doctor peered at her. Clara could only hope he wouldn't recognise her noticeably longer hair or her dishevelled clothes. He shrugged them off. Whether he'd genuinely missed them or just taken a hint that she didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't sure. But she didn't question it.

"Let's go then." He went to press some buttons on the console while Clara climbed into the seat. She thought about her past self out there, desperately searching for help. But she couldn't do anything. Not only might it end the universe but it would leave Weatley under Dalek occupation. Like it or not, she'd have to stay.

When the Doctor had his back turned she leaned into the console and whispered. "Just one thing. If it's possible, just keep away from the Daleks for a while."


End file.
